Reflecting on School Use of Technology

Getting more and more technology into the classrooms to help compliment student learning has been a goal of mine for quite some time. We are steadily acquiring the technology here at St. Rita Catholic School so we can offer a student experience that takes advantage to the reality that students learn in.

In our Learning Commons and classrooms students have access to:

• 30 iPads
• a cart of 25 netbooks
• 20 iPods
• 11/13 classrooms are outfitted with a SmartBoard as is our library
• each teacher had a laptop 

We are looking at BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) activities here in our Junior grades and there has even been some collaboration of Junior and Primary students using the iPods.

Here is the St. Rita BYOD Policy for the 2012-2013 school year.

It never fails to amaze me just how much our students know about these devices. Not tapping into this knowledge to help our students meet their learning goals would seem like a waste.

I think it is important that we pause and reflect where we are at this moment. We are very fortunate to have so many great things here at our school. Taking a look at where we are and where we can move next is going to be a very important stage for us. Before use any more school funds to purchase more technology we are going to take a close look at how we use technology here at St. Rita and how we can use it to meet our students needs and to increase student achievement.

Library to Learning Commons

It is hard to believe that the school year is now three weeks in. The students and teachers are back hard at work and the next stage of evolution is taking place in our library. Our library will always be a place where were can go and get all kids of books. However, there are major changes out there that way that students learn and our school board, the Ottawa Catholic School Board has been implementing some very creative and innovative changes in our schools that effect how students learn and are being taught.

Our library's are be gradually turned into Learning Commons.

So what exactly is a Learning Commons:

• A Learning Commons is a flexible and responsive approach to helping schools focus on learning collaboratively. It expands the learning experience, taking students and educators into virtual spaces beyond the walls of a school.
• A Learning Commons is a vibrant, whole-school approach, presenting exciting opportunities for collaboration among teachers, teacher-librarians and students. Within a Learning Commons, new relationships are formed between learners, new technologies are realized and utilized, and both students and educators prepare for the future as they learn new ways to learn.
• And best of all, as a space traditionally and naturally designed to facilitate people working together, a school’s library provides the natural dynamics for developing a Learning Commons.

Over the past few weeks we have seen a huge change with how people are using this space. We are going to be using the technology there to coincide with rich learning task that will provide new and exciting opportunities for our students.

The school community is very excited to see what how the Learning Commons will improve student learning and change teaching practice.

BYOD - We are going for it!

It's time..........

Whether you call it BYOD or BYOT we are going to institute it here at our school.

There is open wireless access in every part of the school and staff and students alike are accessing it. They are accessing it on laptops, iPads and NetBooks. They are using them to complete activities that promote higher order thinking skills. However, there is the opportunity to explore so many more learning opportunities.

Many students have devices that they could use on our wireless network but we have not exactly encouraged them to bring them to school.  With the right set of expectations there is no real reason why they cannot bring them to school to use.

From anything I have experienced I do not see much difference between teaching a student to play out in the school yard and teaching a student to use technology appropriately at school, and elsewhere for that matter. Having the conversation with students about leaving a positive digital footprint early is an obvious conversation to have.

This is kind of liberating. No longer will iPods, NetBooks and iPads be hidden away like contraband in backpacks stuffed in the cloakroom.

Bring them out.

Use them.

Learn with them.

Collaborate.

Discover.

Create.

Where else can we go from here?

This is very exciting.

Are there going to be challenges and obstacles? I should hope so. This is going to be a great learning curve for everyone involved. Student, parents, teachers and administrators will all have to all make adjustments. First and foremost we are going to have to figure out how to use them in the best possible ways in the classroom. That's my job and I am looking forward to it.

Let's see what tomorrow brings.........