Plainview-Old Bethpage 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.
a) Wireless Netbooks - to seamlessly integrate and support our curriculum objectives and the development of 21st century literacy skills inside our Middle School libraries and classrooms throughout both buildings.
b) Interactive Whiteboards and SMART Notebook Software - to support multisensory teaching and learning activities for students inside classrooms K-12. These instructional tools continue to transform the way our K-12 teachers are able to digitally prepare and engage our students in innovative and exciting multimedia enriched interactive activities.
c) Visual Presenters - to provide teachers and students with the ability to project, investigate, and capture digital images that can be integrated into real-time instructional activities and digitally presented SMART Notebook lessons.
d) SKYPE - a free web 2.0 application that cost effectively provides teachers and students with opportunities to experience virtual field trips through videoconferencing and communication opportunities with content providers and teachers/students from around the globe. One of our e-missions called Operation Montserrat provides an interactive simulation through which our students are able to practice their critical thinking and problem solving skills (in the content areas of math, science, social studies, and technology) while serving as members of volcano and hurricane evacuation and communication teams interacting with a flight commander from the Challenger Learning Center in West Virginia, via SKYPE, to analyze the information, assess risks, and suggest courses of action for evacuation.
e) Read180 and System44 - research based multimedia enriched software to support literacy development and individualized instructional activities.
f) Infinite Campus Parent Portal - provides parents and guardians with the ability to view student data online, anytime, via the Web.
g) Castle Learning - a web-based instructional assessment/review tool that provides our students with "anytime" online access to Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, English, and Foreign Languages instructional activities.
h) Rosetta Stone - an online English-language development program designed to provide our non-English speaking parents/guardians with the opportunity to improve their ability to understand, speak, read and write in English.
2. Please tell us of any major innovations you are planning to introduce within the next year.
Our educational and fiscally minded/responsible approach for the next school year is to continue to strategically evaluate, monitor, and pilot the efficacy of emerging instructional technologies - such as cloud computing/services, desktop virtualization, wireless, emerging tablet platforms such as apple, android, pc, etc.; interactive apps and devices; and 3D and LED projection systems, for example - so as to assure our community that the new technologies we continue to implement will continue to help move our district forward and toward our strategic district goals designed to support our curriculum objectives and meet the transforming 21st century needs of our students and teachers.
3. Are teachers or students using cellphones in the district for instructional purposes?
Not at this time.
