Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Education Technology topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Belton ISD CTO outlines device distribution and screen‑time monitoring; district cites Lightspeed/Digital Insights
Summary
Chief technology officer Frank Murray told trustees the district uses a mix of iPads and Chromebooks by grade, is monitoring in‑school screen time with Lightspeed/Digital Insights, and has policies aligned with recent Texas bills on devices and virtual learning.
Frank Murray, Belton ISD's chief technology officer, told the board that the district has structured device distribution to match developmental needs and testing requirements and is using monitoring tools to track in‑school screen time.
Murray said elementary classrooms use differing mixes of iPads and Chromebooks (for example, iPads in Pre‑K and mixed sets in early grades), full class sets in grades 3–5 for testing, and a 1:1 take‑home Chromebook program beginning in grade 6. "We don't want to just hand a Chromebook to a 4‑ or 5‑year‑old," Murray said, describing station‑based device use in the earliest grades.
On usage data, Murray said the district measures screen time at school with software integrated into the Lightspeed content filter called Digital Insights and that the system is becoming more granular. "We have a software that's included with our Lightspeed content filter. It's called Digital Insights," he said. He said the district currently pulls data by grade level and school and that Digital Insights' updates will allow teacher‑ and student‑level views.
Murray also summarized how the district is aligning practice with recent Texas legislation: it had updated a policy on student cell phones and smartwatches months before Texas House Bill 1481; it is ensuring technology is not used as a substitute for physical recess per HB 2849; and local control authorized in Senate Bill 569 supports launching a Belton Virtual Learning Academy.
Trustees asked about parental controls and drilling down into data. Murray said parents can be given access to a Lightspeed parent portal to limit applications at home and that the district can place students in restricted groups ("no YouTube" group) or use classroom tools that lock devices into a single application when appropriate. The district plans to collect more classroom‑observation data to distinguish active creation from passive consumption.
Next steps: the IT team will expand reporting granularity and the district will develop communications for families on parental‑control options.
