Thursday, May 22, 2008

Apple Digital School - Keynote - Paul Witzel

Shoreline School District 1 to 1

 

A large portion of the success has been with the leadership of the Superintendent.  They are able to support with financial decisions and political ones as well.  Roadblocks are much more likely to be removed with this kind of support.

 

This success story started with a single cart for  Mathematics project 6 years ago.  An early finding is that the mobile cart was used for many other educational opportunities.  Early in the implementation all teachers were provided with a laptop. 

 

Peer Coaches were provided with release time (1/2) day per week to support their peers and funding a 0.5 tech specialist teacher.  Roadblocks and bumps in the road were removed so that teachers didn’t experience that one problem that gave them reason to abandon technology.  The 0.5 tech specialist was phased out; however, the peer coaches still continue to support.

 

Additional funding was arranged through grants and a 2 student to 1 computer ratio was established.  Programs grew and additional stakeholders came and observed what was happening.  Grade 4 to 8 became 1 to 1 and then the carts that were used for the intermediate grades moved to the primary classrooms.  In years 4 and 5, all schools in the Shoreline District went to 1 to 1 implementation.  (Changes to the support included training days,1 hour classified time, 0.2 tech specialist teacher, district technology specialists and continuation of the peer coaching.)

 

Common Agreements

-       Just right – Just in Time staff development

o      Surveying staff to assess needs

o      Differentiated instruction

-       Building-wide curriculum mapping

-       Vertical planning (discussion between grades)

 

Success :>

Over the five years of study,  students scores on the WASL are higher.  They are careful not to claim technology has made this change; however, technology integration is not a detractor.

 

Student Engagement through

            Writing

            Story Telling – engaging the family in sharing their stories

            Movie making – take existing clips, remove audio, create own tracks

           

Differentiation

            Projector – Visual learners, websites, modeling

            Individualize software – NLVM – Rainforest Maths – Net Trekker

                        - Achieve 3000 – United Streaming – Explore Learning

– Note Taker

 

Access – Not all students have home access or internet access

            Offer Breakfast Club

            Offer Homework Club

            Parent Classes – supporting parents to talk technology with students

 

Efficiencies

            Above and Beyond

                        Podcasting

                        iMovie

                        Communication

 

Interesting Comment to a question about Cyberbullying.

We have not have many issues with this but it is an administrative issue.  What we are looking at is just new ways of creating the same crimes.

 

http://tiny.cc/woGfO

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