East Williston School District technology questionnaire

These are the replies from some districts to the Newsday questionnaire regarding the use of new technologies in their classrooms.

Some of the answers are elaborate, and have not been edited or reduced. Some districts did not answer the questions directly.

1. Please list any major technological innovations introduced in the classroom in the past three years. Please give the name and list the use for each item.

There has been a continually roll-out of SMART Boards and Mimeos in many of the classrooms. These are being deployed in all grade levels and subject areas. To date, all math rooms at the Wheatley School have them and are used daily to increase student participation and interaction in math. At North Side school, all rooms have been given a document camera. This technology replaces the old overhead and opaque projectors. Teachers are using them in most lessons to demonstrate on the screen what used to be done as a hold and show.

Along with this initiative, almost all classrooms in all three of our buildings have been equipped with mounted LCD projectors. Teachers are now using their classroom computers daily and projecting what they want to show to the whole class. This includes utilizing Discovery Streaming as embedded video in lessons The Wheatley school has seen the addition of 4 mac laptop carts as well as an upgrade of the 2 computer rooms. One room has PC desktops while the other has mac laptops.

These are being used to such a great extent that we are looking at other alternatives to get more computers into all students hands so that these carts won't have to be moved around the room. The carts are being used by teachers as a research and presentation tool during class time. In addition, we do a live television broadcast for the morning news at Wheatley in every classroom.

2. Please tell us of any major innovations you are planning to introduce within the next year.

We are currently exploring the implementation of a one-to-one initiative. No decisions have been made, but we anticipate the research phase taking about 2 years. The current thought is a rollout to all 5th and 8th grade students.

3. Are teachers or students using cellphones in the district for instructional purposes?

At the present time, cell phones are not being used for instruction. However, [we are] constantly looking for lesson plans for the incorporation of thee devices.