Reflecting on my 20-year career as an educator, I believe technology offers the most significant potential changes in educational practices by increasing students’ ability to access and apply knowledge, collaborate, and create.
At Hildreth Elementary School, we are four months into a successful pilot program that provided an iPad for each fifth-grade student. The students use the technology at home and throughout parts of their school day. It has become a valuable organizational tool that allows students to demonstrate their knowledge through creative apps and to collaborate on work with their peers and teachers using Google Drive.
The pilot program was the request of the team of fifth-grade teachers after they had attended professional development trainings and visited other schools where iPads were well used to advance learning. To hear more from the students using the iPads as a learning tool, visit the fifth-grade website at https://sites.google.com/a/psharvard.org/hes-grade-5/ipad-1-world
Next year the fifth-graders will take their iPads to sixth grade and both fifth- and sixth-grade teachers will continue the pilot program. After investigating the best way to fund this technology, the technology director and the business manager helped to secure a lease. The three-year lease allows us to manage the costs and stay current with the latest technology. In three years we can choose to keep the devices or take a credit for the next lease.
Part way through next year the School Committee, in consultation with the administrators, teachers, parents, and students, will decide whether to procure iPads for all students in grades 5 to 12. If the iPad becomes a vital learning tool that helps students to access and apply knowledge, collaborate, and create, we will have wisely invested in a tool that ensures movement toward our vision of education in the Harvard Public Schools as described in our newly adopted vision statement:
The Harvard Public Schools community, a leader in educational excellence, guides each student to realize his or her highest potential by balancing academic achievement with personal well-being in the pursuit of individual dreams. The students engage in learning how to access and apply knowledge, think critically and creatively, and communicate effectively. They continue to develop the confidence and ability to collaborate, contribute, and adapt in an ever-changing world.
Linda Dwight is the superintendent of Harvard Public Schools.
