Several years ago, some students in San Francisco Unified School District had the wrong idea about educational technology.

They viewed technology as a “toy” or “free time,” Ben Klaus, principal of Jose Ortega Elementary, said during a virtual presentation at CoSN2020, the annual conference of the Consortium for School Networking. “It was to browse the internet to play games.”

“We wanted to unpack that and disrupt that, and make a plan for how we can achieve a goal of tech being viewed and used by students as a tool and resource for their learning.”

One of the first things that had to change? The makeup of the classroom.

That’s just one part of the district’s pilot program that combines personalized, technology-enhanced instruction with learning environment design. This fall marks the third year of the program, which was rolled out at 12 of 143 SFUSD schools. An early success: greater student engagement at the participating schools, Klaus said.

Modern learning environments like those being developed in SFUSD are designed to foster more collaboration and include technology that enhances learning. The embrace of MLEs in K–12 schools is also linked to workforce demands for employees who are adept at critical thinking and problem-solving.

For SFUSD, the focus on blended learning and personalized learning also helps to address achievement gaps among students of different races and ethnicities, as well as those who have disabilities, speak English as a second language or come from economically disadvantaged families. The high-performing district aims to address every student’s needs, and its leaders strategize ways to tackle the root causes of its challenges, said E’leva Hughes Gibson, assistant superintendent of the district’s pre-K–8 Schools Division, Cohort 5. One way to do that, she said, is to address how the district provides access and equity for every child. The personalized learning program helps with that.