By Kirsten Smith
Imagine helping your child get ready for his or her first day of school and all that is packed in the extra-large, trail king backpack is a bottle of water, a mid-morning snack and a couple of number two pencils. Later that day your child comes home with a mobile computing device that contains all of his or her textbooks, supplemental charts and graphs, videos and an assignment notebook. For homework, he or she is asked to watch a YouTube video on how to dissect a frog, and when the kids return to school, the teachers function as facilitators in the classroom, not just the sole source instructor. Making this vision a reality is just what K-12 administrators, teachers and information technology (IT) departments are striving to accomplish. Smartphones, tablets and e-readers are ready to take our students from flat, print-based learning to high definition, interactive, collaborative learning solutions.
22nd Century E-learning
George Aulenbacher, the principal of George Washington High School, envisions a day when his staff will deliver all of their instruction through 1-to-1 technology available from tablet computing. Aulenbacher knows that current and emerging technologies offer the best ways to unleash his students’ potential for learning. If kids had to make a choice between shoes and their smartphone, they would grab their smartphone every time because smartphones are a lifeline to the students’ social and informational world. These hand-held devices have paved the way for the larger screened tablets like the iPad, and students are so familiar with these devices that picking one up for computing, reading and searching the Web is second nature.
GWHS is the first school in the state to provide an e-library where students can check out books via desktop computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones and other e-readers. Aulenbacher is striving for a 22nd century library that is available 24 hours a day and is a resource for SAT study guides, AP exam study books and all the novels for the students’ English classes.
“We envision students having access to all types of information digitally instead of just print copies,” says Allison Fisher, GWHS’s librarian who was hired to make the idea of the 22nd century library idea a reality. “In the future I hope if you walk in my library you will not see dusty books on shelves but students actively engaged in their school work using tablet devices or our computer stations.”
E-learning Challenges
Everywhere you look school systems are investing in mobile devices for what they can do—or potentially do—with them. “Because mobile technologies are so emergent and present in everyone’s life, we know that we need to get mobile technologies in the hands of our teachers as both a teaching and learning tool,” says Jennifer Hornyak, the director of Instructional Technology for the Department of Catholic Schools Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston.
The diocese recently provided several three-day workshops for teachers and administrators to receive a broad overview on what these technologies can do for them and how they might apply the devices to their particular schools. While each school will need time to plan out its infrastructure so it can create a blueprint for increased bandwidth, wireless security, mobile device management and correct classroom implementation, some are already making progress. In January 2012, St. Vincent de Paul Parish School in Wheeling placed iPads on the desks of all of its sixth, seventh and eighth graders, and beginning in the 2012-2013 school year freshmen and sophomores at Bishop Donahue Memorial High School in McMechen, WV, will see iPads integrated into their education curriculum. Additional diocesan schools have chosen to use the iPads as 10 packs that travel from classroom to classroom or provide one iPad to each teacher to use as an instructional aid with their existing curriculum.
In the neighboring states of Ohio and Virginia, funding has been awarded to grade schools to deliver 1-to-1 learning on iPads in fourth grade social studies classes. Using the applications iBooks Author and iTunes, the students and teachers are working together to create their own content. The app iBooks Author allows users to author their own books, create graphical presentations that replace poster boards, incorporate videos and multimedia into their creations and keep bulky school supplies out of the classroom. Apple has partnered with textbook companies to provide interactive courseware so that students can swipe through pages of history and then click on a URL link to see an interactive presentation. Bishop Hartley High School and Defiance High School in Ohio have gone completely iPad. For $15 per student per class, the courseware can be pushed out to each device with mobile device management tools. Countless man hours are saved because textbooks don’t have to be printed, shipped and physically distributed, and content is subscription-based so you don’t have to wait several years for the latest print edition.
When 130 iPads were distributed across the 10th grade English classes at Lancaster High School, the students were challenged to utilize the iPads for project-based learning with online collaboration. During the project, titled “The Power of Word,” students met online and in person to coordinate the development of presentations for local community members. During the course of the year, seniors took on leadership positions, guiding the freshmen and sophomores through their project development. Presentations to community members like the chief of police and the mayor kept the students serious and accountable. Skype technology was used to disseminate the information and online peer reviews kept the student comments respectful and thoughtful.
Virtual Safety
The IT departments of school systems are preparing as quickly as possible for the potential increase of mobile devices in the classroom. Before the innovation of the smartphone and the tablet, the K-12 network administrators could focus their security efforts on the computer lab and one or two desktop computers in a classroom. Now they will need to apply new policies across all the mobile devices that are on school property whether they are brought from home or supplied by the school. Defending the students against bullies, stalkers and predators and complying with strict Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) regulations will require constant up-to-date security measures, like blocking spyware and viruses and enabling forensic reporting to manage liability.
Administrators and teachers are ready to embrace these mobile devices that deliver 1-to-1 learning because they see the power it has in reaching all the different learning styles of their students. Educators believe that technology in mobile devices can deliver results that were not previously attainable with the desktop PC. By moving from textbooks to tablets, the students have all their written content at their fingertips and they gain powerful new tools for experiential learning.
About the Author
Kirsten Smith is a partner at ContactPointe IT Services, a regionally based computer services company. Smith, who holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering, oversees her company’s initiatives for technology training and business development. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Arthritis Foundation Great Lakes Region, the West Virginia Board of Advisors and the Jingle Bell Run Committee for the Arthritis Foundation.
2 Comments
Wow, I didn’t realize how far school systems had come. It’s exciting to think about students collaborating online & learning how to access and research multiple formats of source content. Thanks for such an enlightening article!
Very informative article. While there are several schools in our area in Florida that are using computers in the classroom, I did not realize what an advantage it is to today’s student. As our technology advances students and adults alike need to be computer savvy. Starting them at such a young age-6th grade or below can only be advantageous.