ELLINWOOD — Anticipation abounds at Ellinwood School District this spring as 5th and 12th graders receive cutting edge technology that allows them to search for the front door of Ellinwood Grade School on Google Earth or message a teacher with a question about an assignment.
USD 355 has begun its iPad initiative with a partial rollout this spring and full deployment K-12 coming this fall. Fifth graders and Ellinwood High School seniors were the first to receive the iPad Airs or iPad minis in the past couple of weeks.
“IPads bring learning to life,” said EGS Principal Eric Sjogren. “There are many things you can do on an iPad that you can’t do on a computer. When you see it watch it, and hear it, it adds a tool.”
In fact, the elementary school students were so excited to get their iPads, they kept a classroom count down until the day arrived.
With careful planning and teacher training to ensure full usage of the technology, the district has spent the last couple of years preparing for this rollout.
“It’s making my life easier,” said EGS fifth grade teacher Lisa Reser. She likes the fact students can take tests and send assignments to her.
The benefit to the partial rollout is to fix the small issues that come up and to test model suitability for the different grades. One class in the fifth grade has iPad minis and the other class has iPad Airs.
In addition, each class has an Apple TV, which attaches to a projector screen and can mirror the work on an iPad.
“Students can give reports on the screen,” said Reser.
Students use apps for such things as defining and spelling words, which Reser likes. Apps are software designed to run on smartphones and mobile devices such as tablets.
So far, the students are pleased with the tablets, too.
“It encourages you do more stuff,” said one fifth grader.
With the iPad comes responsibility, and the fifth graders have to remember to plug their tablet into the iPad cart for updates and recharging. The elementary school students cannot download apps themselves.
“We call it the Cinderella Cart,” said EGS Principal Eric Sjogren. “You lose out the next day,” if students don’t remember to plug in the iPad.
One disadvantage to the iPad is typing papers. The school still has laptops and desktop computers that can be use for this purpose although some of the students don’t mind typing on the tablet. On the iPad minis, the touch board screen can be split it two so it can be used similarly to texting.
However, “the iPads will not replace computers,” said Sjogren.
EHS
Ellinwood High School students are equally pleased with their iPads. They can use an app to write on the screen using a finger instead of a pencil to take notes. They can communicate easily with teachers, asking questions if needed while attending seminar.
Teacher Julie Ann Jacobs has been instrumental in working with teachers to coordinate and encourage teachers to use the iPad as a transformative tool in digital literacy.
“The focus is to create not just use the iPad as a paper substitute,” said Jacobs, although the district anticipates less use of paper.
The district also plans to train the students on suiting task to device. Students own their own cell phone plus will use school laptops for some tasks.
While the teens have more freedom than the elementary kids, they have to request any educational apps that are not free. The apps must also be appropriate and meet administration criteria.
“The iPads are a big investment,” said Jacobs. “We wanted teachers to feel empowered to use them.”
EHS Principal Shawn Henderson was also pleased with the rollout. “It’s going really well. It’s even exceeded our expectations, and it’s the last piece of the puzzle. We’re really excited about full implementation.”