Wednesday, January 28, 2026

Guest Opinion | School Board Member Jennifer Hall Lee: Inside Pasadena Unified School District’s Digital Classroom: The Growing Role of Education Technology

Technology has revolutionized the classroom and Pasadena Unified School District has met the challenge. The latest advancement in education technology is the Interactive Flat Panel or as most of us refer to them, the smart board. Pasadena Unified School District has one in every classroom.

EdTech is a game changer

What is a smart board? Imagine a digital white board on steroids. These boards enhance student achievement and engagement. What is needed with smart boards? They need an Information Technology department (known as IT) and an Education Technology Coach.

Rebekah Black is the Pasadena Unified School District Education Technology Coach and she is the link between the IT department and the classroom. She is referred to as the EdTech. She is a certified teacher and has worked in the District since 2003 at both Roosevelt Elementary and Altadena Arts. She has also worked in our IT Department. Black said, “The purpose of my role is to connect IT with academics. I am able to work with both places.”

Many people describe smart boards as game changers. Students and teachers can share their personal screens on the classroom smart boards. Teachers are released from their device and have more interaction with students. The integration between the IT department and the classroom is essential in this new digital academic classroom.

Black is the teacher who works with all teachers, “IT manages everything on the back end. I manage that classroom piece.” And as technology continues its growth (think of Artificial Intelligence) the role of the EdTech will become even more indispensable.

Curriculum

As technology advances so does curriculum. Black described the Education Technology changes in the 21st century. Teachers went from “overhead projectors,” which have no interactivity, “to now building lessons” on a smart board.

The smart boards utilize both external and built in applications. The teacher can add virtual manipulatives, both static and dynamic. A static manipulative is a still photo or a letter. Our teachers mostly utilize dynamic manipulatives which are images that can be flipped around on the screen through using a mouse.

Teachers in the Pasadena Unified School District are mostly teaching curriculum online although we do have textbooks and hard copies available. Our curriculum includes Language Arts, history, phonics, math, world languages, independent study, cursive and more. Black has to make sure that the curriculum works seamlessly for every teacher and student. “When new curriculum is adopted I am able to say this will work in our system.”

The use of smart boards significantly enhances learning for students with different needs such as visual or audio impairments.

Combined with the voice amplifiers which are worn around the teachers’ necks, the technology captures student attention in new ways. The lessons become more participatory and students feel more engaged. Black said, “Students love using the board as it’s interactive and they like to share their work.”

EdTech ramped up during Covid

Covid was a pivotal moment for education and when Pasadena Unified School District closed schools in 2020 teachers and students were abruptly removed from physical classrooms and plunged into the virtual world. Black said that the teachers had to “take all the things they do in their classroom” and move it “into a virtual world.” So Black moved into an EdTech role.

Covid required major changes for classroom learning because schools were closed. Students were sent home with their chromebooks on a Friday and two days later, on Monday morning, all students were online being taught by their teachers. When Covid ended, the classroom had evolved and the need for an EdTech person was tremendous. So Black continued in her role. She is now the only EdTech person in Pasadena Unified School District.

These Interactive Flat Panels, or smart boards, have reached beyond the classroom and are used in PTA meetings where they have increased parent engagement.

Education technology is part of the 21st century classroom and the EdTech person in a school system is an essential link for students’ education.

Jennifer Hall Lee is a Pasadena Unified School District Board Member and is speaking for herself.