This past month we have had a lot of activity planning to
move towards a one to one iPad platform. We started with a site visit to Monroe
High School. Tom Goodall was generous enough to allow us to visit with him and
his staff to talk about how they developed their implementation and plans for
using one to one iPads. First off I would like to thank Tom and his staff for
the information and have to say that new Monroe High School is absolutely
beautiful!
On our site visit we had access to the following: Assistant
Superintendent for Curriculum, Director of Informational Technology, High
School Principal, teachers and several students. A few of the first notable
comments that were made during our time at Monroe was that the Principal has to
drive the initiative, without the Principal being the driving force behind this
type of change it will not be successful. The reasons for this comment was the
fact that teaching practices and pedagogy must change in a one to one
environment with the type of access students will have to information.
Therefore, the Principal must instill in the staff the need to change some, not
all, of the teaching methodology that is used in traditional classrooms.
One of the areas that Monroe did not have the luxury of
having was time. They need to implement their program in four months from the
time the Board of Education gave them an approval to purchase the equipment and
move in this direction. With that said, the professional development with the
staff was centered around the use of technology in the classroom and how to
change staff teaching methodologies to make this a successful program. They did
an intense professional development program in August to address the needs and
concerns of the staff and students.
As we visited each classroom it was clearly evident that
students are much more engaged in their own learning then a traditional
classroom. The students explained to us how important it was to them to have
these devices and tools in class. They demonstrated to us how they take notes
on PFD handouts, PowerPoint’s, and general notes. They also explained how they
loved to use the classroom wiki pages for discussions and exchanging
information. Students articulated that this was a better way to learn and
engage them in the classroom.
During our visit to the school, we had access to the entire
building as we observed classes throughout the building we never observed a
student with there head down or not engaged with an iPad or in a discussion!
This is one of the main reasons for our school to be moving in this direction,
we have too many students not engaging in their own learning.
As we reflected on our visit to Monroe we developed a plan
to move forward on the following:
1.
Get our teaching staff iPad 2 in their hands
now! Let them get comfortable with the technology and develop a list of apps
for teachers and students for a September roll out.
2.
Develop a professional development schedule that
works for us. The need to develop teacher leaders in the use of the iPad,
technology instruction pedagogy, and best practices.
3.
Develop an imbedded structure of continuous
improvement of curriculum.
4.
Implement online textbooks and materials for 24 hour access.
5.
Develop a list of online courses that can be use
for a blended teaching environment.
6.
Develop a better system of teacher observation
to ensure that teachers receive quality feedback and direction to assist them
with changing the classroom environment.
I will continue to blog more frequently as we move forward
with the implementation and teaching practices to share our experiences with
the community, parents, teachers, students, and the educational community.
