North Shore 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.
North Shore school officials reported we did purchase several SMART tables for our elementary schools. But we didn't stop there. While researching the device, I believed there was great potential for use of the table beyond the elementary schools. Together, with the assistant director of special education, we implemented the SMART table as a learning tool for our life skills program at the middle school and high school. Here, the table allows students to practice the essential sorting and organizational skills these students require. Teachers have reported that the students are benefiting from the table as a tool in their classroom.
Second, to expand student research, I looked at educational technology models in European nations. I noticed schools in Finland and Denmark were providing more students access to Internet resources using a device called a thin client as an alternative to computers. Last year, I asked a team of students, teachers ,librarians, staff developers, technicians, and parents to evaluate this as a possible tool for North Shore. The evaluation was very successful and we have deployed 40 of these devices throughout the district. 20 are in the high school library, and 20 are in the middle school library. We are proud to be the first K-12 district in the United States to utilize WYSE thin client technology. Third, while we saw the iPad as a tool for elementary success, we also saw it as an opportunity to allow high school students to access libraries all over the world from the comfort and safety of North Shore. The iPad proved versatile because students could use the three most popular eBook readers in one device (Nook, Kindle, iBooks). Since iPads are a newer technology, we know there will be more they can do as more software is developed for them. We look forward to seeing what Apple can bring to us.
Though there is a restricted cell phone policy in the district, we are continuing to look at cell phones as a learning tool. This is a technology that is in the hands of virtually every student and they are already comfortable using this technology, so why not put it to educational use? Currently, we are exploring web 2.0 sites like ipadio.com, blogger.com and blabberize.com. These sites allow students to publish content to the web via text and voice messages. This generation of digital natives are instinctive digital authors. It is our responsibility as educators to harness this energy and use it to help provide students quality instruction.
