The school district has allocated funds from both the technology and construction budgets in order to upgrade instructional technology.
The district is rolling out iPad carts, with the high school’s math department sharing two carts of 30 iPads as part of an experimental pilot program to see how both teachers and students use them in a classroom setting.
Additionally, all teachers at the high school will be receiving MacBook Pros with all new software.
Teachers who already utilized Smartboards will receive upgrades. The new devices allow teachers to be more mobile. They were previously limited to standing by the Smartboard.
“Teachers will be able to share the [Smartboard pad] and pass it along to students to input information onto the screen,” said Ken Veon, Director of Curriculum and Technology.
In addition to the long-throw projectors teachers have used in the past, the tech team installed new short-throw projectors, which project from directly above the screen.
Technology assistant and BHS junior David Bohm described the projectors: “They’re really cool because not only will they not interfere when someone walks by, but they’re also 1080p, and they cover the entire wall.”
1080p is the highest current resolution for projectors and devices, and is the best for presentations and video projections for classes.
Bohm said, “The thing has every single port known to man- which means no more connection issues.”
In addition to all of these new devices, the district has also purchased Apple TVs for every classroom with a new projector. The Apple TV allows AirPlay streaming from iPads and MacBooks to televisions- providing an effective method of wireless communication for videos, music and other forms of media used in the classroom.
In terms of software, all new computers are loaded with OS X Lion or Mountain Lion, the last two updates of Apple’s OS X operating system. Older machines that are already in the district will have either OS X Leopard or Snow Leopard. All new machines will include Adobe Creative Suite 6 (CS 6) as well as the latest version of Microsoft Office 2011.
FirstClass and eSIS have been replaced by Gmail and Infinite Campus, respectively.
Gmail allows for 25 GB of storage for every user, which is more than enough when compared to the rather paltry 250 MB previously available to FirstClass users. The use of Gmail also allows for a more integrated solution for Google Docs, which has been adopted this year as a solution for collaborative document, presentation and spreadsheet editing.
Infinite Campus is a complete replacement both for eSIS and the software that was used to generate schedules. It allows students and teachers to evaluate current grades. Also, it will allow the district to decrease the use of paper products, as report cards will now be completely digital.
Both Infinite Campus and Gmail come with own respective applications for iOS and Android, iPhone, iPad and most old and new Android devices.
Many teachers are looking forward to using these new technologies. 4th grade language arts and social studies teacher Jason Hill said, “Mr. Veon has given teachers multiple tools to utilize in the classroom that [will] help us to be more efficient and serve the needs of all students.”
