LZHS will receive 600 iPads next year as part of a long-term plan to give every middle and high student an iPad for school use.
The Board of Education approved the proposal on February 28. The final plan will bring 600 iPads to LZHS in each of the next three years for a total of 1,800 iPads in the high school by 2014-2015. Including the approximately 150 iPads that are currently available to students, these would create nearly a one to one ratio of device to student.
Meanwhile, the middle schools will receive three sets of 500 iPads for a total of 1,600. These numbers do not include the 150 iPads that would be provided for teachers.
The high school has received about 11 proposals from teachers who would like to use iPads in their classes next year. Administration would like to satisfy as many of those requests as possible, but cannot make any guarantees, according to Eric Hamilton, assistant principal of curriculum and instruction.
The additional iPads are a significant financial investment, according to the District’s expenditure estimates. The cost of the iPads and the related costs (maintenance, staff, etcetera) add up to about $3 million over the three years.
In order to confirm that the iPads were worth the cost and effort, an iPad pilot program was conducted in the high school Environmental Science classes this year, as well as in a middle school class.
“If the pilot program was not successful, we would not have pursued this plan. If not for the risk-taking, both by the kids and the teachers, this would not have been possible at all. Overall, I think the response has been positive,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton cited independent learning, ease of communication, and more as evidence that the iPads in classrooms will be useful.
“The biggest impact that we’ve seen is that the student is able to personalize their own learning. We see students that are recording teachers’ lectures and taking them home to edit their notes, or students writing their notes directly on the PowerPoint, large and in color,” Hamilton said.
The written proposal notes that District 95 has fallen behind the national averages for technology in schools.
“As of September 2012, our computer ratio for the start of this school year is 3.39 students to each computer. This puts us at just above the 2008 national student to computer average of 3.1,” the proposal reads. “Our ratio becomes more positive when looked at from the broader perspective of students to total devices [where device includes tablets and iPods]. Our overall student to device ratio is 2.5 students to each device. As positive as this ratio is, we are just now reaching the point where surrounding school districts were several years ago in students sharing a computer.”
There naturally are obstacles that administration will have to navigate during the process of integrating iPads into the curriculum.
“There’s some back-end work that we will have to do in regards to logistics. We have the bandwidth capacity to do this, but executing it might be a little difficult. Initially, it might be hard to get used to, but it will get easier as the years go on,” Hamilton said.
Training teachers to use the iPads and incorporate them into lessons is another aspect that will take significant work. The PSAE days, as well as three days over the summer, are designated to train the teachers who will use the iPads next year on the workings of the device.
“The hardest part, yet also the most exciting, is the risk-taking that teachers are going to do, and trying to make sure that everyone is comfortable with the iPads,” Hamilton said. “We’re not just going to plop down 600 iPads and say ‘go.’ We’re going to take time and make sure everyone knows what to do.”
There will be a learning curve for students as well as teachers, Hamilton says.
“If I give you an iPad and tell you to play Fruit Ninja, that’s no problem. But if I tell you to annotate the PowerPoint through the app iAnnotate, we have to teach you and we have to teach ourselves how to use the iPads for an educational purpose,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton believes there are many different applications of the iPad that will be helpful in class, such as iAnnotate, Edmodo, and Google Drive.
“For instance, look at the creation of a document. If you’re working on a paper in Google Docs with three partners, you can all make edits live. That’s redefining the writing process,” Hamilton said. “So that’s part of how we gauge the success of this process: are we redefining the way you are learning?”
Hamilton is hopeful that the incorporation of the iPads into LZHS will greatly improve students’ ability to learn in a way they enjoy about a subject they are interested in.
“If there’s a tool out there that allows you to find something of your own interest and gives you the opportunity to pursue it and make it your own, then I want to bring that tool to the school,” Hamilton said. “Right now, one of the most effective tools to do that with is the iPad.”