ISD Tablet initiative & others

After two months of silence, I am writing my first post for this school year 2010-11. ISD is moving ahead  in terms of technology with the new addition of tools and resources, leading to infusion of more integration of technology in the classrooms. In the HS, the tablet initiative is launched at the 9^th grade level this year. Thanks to 9^th grade parents for subscribing 100% to the school sponsored purchasing plan and that has helped to keep the logistics easier, in terms of imaging the software/insuring the machines etc. The initiative is off to a good start with teachers starting to use the technology in their classes. Some classes use more than the others but the initial hiccups are over and the real use of technology is taking over. The students use the tablets to take notes, get HW from and send them electronically to their teachers, do a quick research, and  graph the data they collected, to name a few. See the pictures below.

ISD Tablet Initiative

We have introduced two more mobile labs (laptops on carts), one at the elementary level and another at the middle school level. The teachers sign-up for them and use them in classes, whenever they need. I was talking to one of the teachers who uses them regularly and she mentioned that the laptops have made the teaching – learning process more effective, as they have access to technology & the classroom resources in one place – their classroom.

We have also added 9 more Smart Boards and 6 document cameras. Grades 3-8 and core classes in HS have Smart boards in their classroom. This year we have introduced them in a Modern Language classroom and in Art room.

All MS & HS students are provided with an email id from the school this year. This, we believe, will help improve classroom communication.

This year, the focus is on to maximize the use of technology to improve student understanding and achievement. Teachers and the tech department are working hand in hand to achieve that.

I will keep you posted as it goes ….

How and why do I review temporary Internet files?

The Basics:

• Your Web browser creates temporary files automatically to speed up your Internet experience.

• These files can include Web pages, images, sound files, or movies.

• Although the number and variety of temporary Internet files can be intimidating, examining them

    provides a very detailed view of exactly what your children have been viewing online.

• You should check temporary Internet files if there are unusual or suspicious holes in your child’s

    browser history.

• Like the browser history, Internet-savvy children or teens can delete temporary Internet files

    fairly easily.

How and why do I check the Web browser history?

I am providing some tips on how to check your kids’ internet activity to keep them safe online. One of the methods is to periodically check the browser history, so you know what they are viewing & what sites they frequent.

How and why do I check the Web browser history?

The Basics: • The Web browser history lists the Web sites your child has visited recently. • It’s a useful resource for checking Internet activity. • Web browser histories are easy to change and delete, so they are not foolproof.

Next week is on how to review temporary internet files. Keep reading ….

Family Tech Policy

I wrote about kids’ online safety & behavior and the parents’ role in making them good netizens two weeks ago. In that article, I said I would provide some tools and tips for staying savvy. This week, I am writing about family tech policies and rules that could keep our kids safe online.

Rosalind Wiseman, author of just-rereleased Queen Bees and Wannabes, was asked to share her own family technology policy (Wiseman’s kids are 6 and 8). Here it is:

 “Technology can be really fun to use, and it gives us incredible access to the world, but it is a privilege not a right, and because it is a privilege, you have the responsibility to use it ethically. What using technology ethically looks like to me is that you never use it to humiliate, embarrass … or misrepresent yourself or someone else, never use a password without the person’s permission, never share embarrassing information or photos of others, put someone down, or compromise yourself by sending pictures of yourself naked, half-naked or in your underwear. Remember that it is so easy for things to get out of control. You know it, I know it. So I reserve the right to check your online life, from texting to your Facebook page, and if I see that you’re violating the terms of our agreement, I’ll take your technology away until you can earn my trust back. This is my unbreakable, unshakeable law.”

That says it all. Every family needs to have a technology policy at home. It will help educate your youngsters on cyber citizenship and also, doing right things at the right time. Today’s technology has a lot of potential for educating our kids but at the same time, if not used properly, could become very distractive. It is very important to establish with your child early on that technology should be used only when needed and the use is driven by purpose. It is useful to establish a routine on when technology is used for fun or for work. Both can’t be mixed. Kindly be aware that we can perform some routine or repetitive tasks, while listening to music or parallely downloading something, but not the creative tasks. The belief that today’s kids multi-task and still do their work well, is a myth. Many research have proven that the quality of work goes down when kids multi-task rather than focus on the work in hand. Given this, it is important for parents to guide their kids well by establishing rules on the time spent on the internet or listening to music or watching YouTube.

Next is the online content your kids are watching/browsing. It is very important that parents monitor their kids online activities. Either the kids access the internet in a common place or if they access it in their room, the door should be open for the parents to have a quick glance on what the kids are doing. If your kids switch windows on the screen when you walk by or you suspect something, it is better to look at the browsing history. All internet browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox etc.) record the pages visited by the kids. Parents must educate themselves to browse history or access the temporary internet files to keep a watch on their kids online activities (I will explain how to browse history or access the temporary internet files in my next week’s article).

Though it is important for you, as parents to establish the rules and enforce them, these activities provide nice opportunities to educate the kids on what we value and stand for. In addition, they also provide opportunities for conversations and interactions with your kids on their online interests and pursuits, which could be educative for both the kids as well as the parents.

ASB Unplugged

Greetings from Mumbai!  I am at present attending ASB Unplugged Conference in Mumbai. American School of Bombay (ASB) is organizing this conference once in 2 years and Educational Technology leaders from all over the world present and attend this conference.

American School of Bombay is a 1:1 tablet school and has implemented the tablet program across the school for more than 8 years now. They showcased what they do in the classrooms and also opened up their classrooms for us. Every student is having a tablet and all classrooms are using this tech access effectively to provide those students with skills necessary for living in the 21^st century. I could see students creating content, collaborating with fellow students within school and outside of school and communicating them effectively. I have provided here some pictures I took at ASB. Just to remind you that ISD is moving in that direction and we are phasing in 1:1 tablet program next year. You will see the same type of collaboration, communication (what you see on those pictures) taking place at ISD in the near future and I am really excited about it.

More to come …. Keep reading ……

Connected Kids & Informed Adults

Today’s teens know more about technology than we as adults do. They are connected well and stay connected for longer duration than we adults do. This creates a challenge for parents and teachers, who are working to nurture the lives of these kids. I would like to highlight some key points that may help parents better understand the current dynamics.

According to Pew Internet & American Life Project (PewInternet.org), the vast majority (93% & above) of young people of ages 12 to 17 are online. What do they do online? Most of the time, they IM, message or interact through online games & on social networking sites such as Facebook, My Space etc. In today’s web 2.0 world, creating, collaborating and sharing are the purpose of these interactions. Our children share pictures, videos, create content & collaborate on them as well. Research suggests that boys tend to play more online games and are likely to use gaming consoles than girls. On the other hand, girls are more likely to be content creators, bloggers and social networkers. On one side, it is good news that it improves their tech & problem-solving skills and their tech confidence. At the same time, it provides more likelihood for cyber bullying, inappropriate interactions and also for leaving inappropriate digital footprints on the web.

The key lessons that our kids need to be taught are:

1. Personal information is private and cannot be revealed in the open web.
2. Inappropriate interactions need to be reported to an adult (either parent or teacher) whom they feel confident to talk to.
3. Posting pictures and videos of themselves is something that is going to stay forever and any inappropriate ones (thought to be fun) would return to haunt them later in their life or career.
4. Understanding all information posted on the web need not be valid and it is important to check the validity of the information before they use it.

Here is where the adults’ role comes in. It may be increasingly the kids (Digital) world but we are the adults here. Despite a gap in techno-intuition, parents and educators still play a critical role in guiding today’s ’Net generation in their use of technology at home and in the classroom. We need to monitor our kids’activities online, teach them social etiquette and maintain a continuous dialogue about a child’s interests and activities online to keep them safe.

Today’s parents may lack in technology experience but not in life experience. Traditional life skills, manners and safety practices still play an important role and they can be applied to online activities to help today’s young people become responsible digital citizens.

There are some tools and tips that would help you connect well with your teens and stay savvy, which I will discuss in the weeks to come.

Keep reading ….

21st Century Learning & ISD

Imagine a world in which every single person is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge (Collective Cognition). This is not something that we are predicting by looking into the crystal ball. This is happening right now. The current trend is to move all information into the web and provide access to people. This trend is called Cloud Computing.

How does it affect education?

First of all, we are getting access to a vast sum of knowledge at our finger tips all the time. That sounds great!  At the same time, it changes the way we teach in schools. No longer is content recall important in schools. Instead, we need to help students build the following skills:

• the way we access knowledge,
• the ability to assess the usefulness and validity of information,
• the capacity to collaborate/share knowledge &
• the ability to communicate them effectively through online/offline means,

This redefines “Personal Knowledge” and one would realize that it is no longer what you know but it depends on how well you are connected to information. In turn, schools, which are the traditional torch bearers in creating knowledge, have to redefine themselves.

Source: AALF

How can we achieve this in schools?

Some of the key areas of change are: providing the ability to intelligently search resources for meaningful information, (like we search the books that we need on Amazon); making learning in school as transparent as learning out of school; allowing students to collaborate seamlessly anytime anywhere; and formatively assessing students’ strengths & weaknesses instantly, so it has an immediate impact on their learning. To achieve this, we need to provide technology access 24/7, offer digital learning spaces to create, collaborate & communicate, refine the educational delivery and to assess student skills using technology to obtain authentic and immediate results.

ISD is making good strides in this area and is bringing changes in infrastructure & resources, educational delivery and assessment. ISD has provided access to technology to students through classroom computers, a laptop cart and fixed labs and is phasing in the tablet program next year. Tools like Smart boards, projectors, document cameras, digital voice recorders etc., have been added to make educational delivery more authentic. Focus, a platform for home-school collaboration and Moodle, a learning management system are ISD’s digital spaces. More and more teachers are using technology in their classrooms and are supported by Tech integration specialists. Specific professional development efforts are undertaken to refine the educational delivery. MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) testing is used to formatively assess students three times a year and the tests provide immediate feedback to teachers, so it can be used to support the student learning.

In a nutshell, Education 2.0 is entirely different than what we as parents had years ago. The shift that happens now is a paradigm shift – it needs a completely different outlook and approach to understand and pursue.

More to come…. Keep reading!

What are 21st Century Skills?

Of late, there has been widespread talk about the 21st Century Skills that our students need. In turn, there has been a growing movement towards infusing these skills into teaching and learning in schools. This week, I am going to highlight those skills, and discuss why we need to empower our kids with those skills.

 Four key themes guide our understanding of 21st Century skills and provide a broad-based view of the areas that are critical for 21st century competencies. They are Financial-Economic Literacy, Global Awareness, Health Literacy and Civic Literacy. (Source: P21 Document on 21^st Century Skills www.21stcenturyskills.org)

Financial and Economic Literacy provides the ability to understand and manage not only personal finances but also understand & contribute to local and global economies. Global Awareness provides the ability to communicate, share, and work collaboratively with people from different cultures, beliefs & life-styles.  Civic Literacy provides the ability to participate responsibly in all aspects of life, including Environmental responsibility, understanding one’s rights and responsibilities in a community. Health Literacy provides the understanding of what is necessary to maintain positive physical, mental and emotional well-being, and involves developing an understanding of community, national and international health issues.

 Though the above themes form the major areas of learning, there are specific skills that our students need to gain and apply beyond their school setting and throughout their lives. These skills, called 21st Century Skills, include: Creativity & Innovation–the ability to ‘think outside the box;’ the capacity to think and approach issues differently and apply the knowledge gained to develop new solutions to those issues. Communication & Collaboration–the ability of individuals to effectively communicate and work together using digital tools to address common issues. Research & Information Fluency is the ability to use digital tools to find the right information, among the voluminous data available and assess the validity of the data. Critical Thinking & Problem Solving is very important in today’s context and focuses on teaching individuals to make informed decisions and evaluate the effect of their actions on others. Digital Citizenship involves the safe and ethical use of digital tools, the internet and online resources. Technology Literacy is not about the basic understanding of computers, software and other technology but the ability to choose the right tool to do a task and being comfortable in working with those tools. Growth & Leadership expands upon the natural curiosity and desire to learn. The mastery of this skill focuses on the development of individual’s responsibility to pursue lifelong learning, self-evaluation and personal improvement.

 As Thomas Friedman notes in his book The World is Flat, today we are preparing students for jobs that don’t exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented, to solve problems we haven’t begun to think about. As a result, the definition of what it means to be educated in light of the modern world has changed and continues to change. But if all learners do is learn the traditional literacies – to read, write, speak and calculate – they will be literate by 20th Century standards but not by 21st Century standards. And if they leave school with only 20th Century skills, they will certainly not be prepared for what awaits them after school in life and the workplace. Hence one of the main goals of ISD’s technology initiative is to empower our students with 21st Century Skills.

 Reference: CREATING 21ST CENTURY-READY TEACHERS by Atomic Learning

Santha Kumar, Director of Technology

Laptop initiatives in Schools

I would like to highlight two things about laptop programs here:

1. Why more and more schools are moving towards laptop programs and
2. What are the goals & objectives of ISD’s laptop initiative?

 According to the Apple Classroom of Tomorrow (ACOT 2) study, 21st century learning is at the confluence of three major influences: globalization, which increases global interdependence and competition; technology innovations that enable more engaged teaching and learning and provide 24 / 7 access to content and people; and new understanding of how people learn. Thinking further, one realizes that these influences have created more and more new knowledge and the pace at which this knowledge is growing is extremely rapid. The current model of learning is not able to support this growth. We can’t ‘know it all’ or ‘teach it all’. Given this growth, it is not practical to acquire the knowledge the way we have in the past. Given this context, the capacities to know how to learn and how to find information are more and more critical than the knowledge of facts, dates or formulas.  In addition, personal knowledge is no longer what you know but, it is instead a product of how well you are connected to networks that provide you with useful information.

 A laptop in the hands of each student builds on that concept. The tech tools serve as vehicles for communicating, sharing and creating knowledge. Also, they provide a place to explore ideas, research questions, process thoughts and serve as an extension of the learning process.  Using technology appropriately and effectively for getting work done is an important skill of the 21st century.

 Moreover, technology has been a driving force in creating new types of jobs over the past century, accelerating on the past 20 years.  We don’t know what type of jobs our students might take up 10 years from now. Some of those jobs don’t exist today.  1:1 learning provides opportunities for acquiring the skills necessary to be adaptable enough to work in such a fluid environment. 1:1 also adds authenticity to students’ learning experience, enabling them to explore rigorous academic concepts in the context of the world around them. Hence, more and more schools are moving towards 1:1 learning.

 ISD, keeping with the trends, has adopted a three year plan (see below) to phase in tablet PCs in the high school. The goals and objectives of this initiative are as follows:

• Increase student motivation and achievement by providing 24/7 access to technology & online/offline resources
• Empower our students with 21st century skills
• Refine the teaching-learning process & make it more modern-day student friendly

 

More to follow …. Keep reading in the weeks to come      

Hello ISD Community!

Welcome to ISD Tablet Initiative’s blog. This blog is meant to inform you about the progress of the program and any news as well. Here is my first post:

Greetings ISD parents! Hopefully, you have noticed the growth in Technology at ISD this year. The Board continues to support the growth of tech resources at school, and our classrooms, teachers, and students benefit. As an exciting component of our 3-Year Technology Plan, ISD is moving into 1 to 1 program in the high school next year, meaning each 9th grader should have his/her own laptop. ISD will introduce tablets (laptop with writing capability) to freshman and will phase them into other grades over two years.  You may have questions like

• What is a 1 to 1 program?
• Why should we take that direction?
• How many schools are going in that direction?

Please see the answers below:

What is 1 to 1 program?

1 to 1 means one computer to one student; that is each student has access to a computer all the time.  This is also called Laptop program or Tablet program. Each student brings in a tablet /laptop to school and uses it in their classes as well as at home. This is an ownership program; students will be asked to purchase their laptops.

Why should we take that direction?

There are two main rationales behind this:

Research says that students on an average spend only 18.5% of their time in a year in formal learning environments and remaining time in non-formal learning environments. By providing them access to technology and other classroom resources (online/offline), their learning time can be extended.

Providing the students with access to the same laptop/table in and outside the school provides 24/7 access to all software, data and other resource. Hence, learning can take place anytime anywhere according to the needs of the learner.

Apart from these, studies have shown that there is increased motivation and enthusiasm to learn among teens, when using laptops/tablets.

How many schools are going in that direction?

Many schools are going in that direction. 1 to 1 is a buzz word now in education. To name a few, International School Brussels, Zurich International School, American School Milan, American School of the Hague, American School of Warsaw, American School London, American School Bombay, Canadian International School Singapore, Western Academy Beijing, New International School Thailand, Shanghai Singapore International School, International School of Toulouse, International School Eerde, Concordia International School Shanghai, Korea International School, Renaissance College, Hong Kong, Surabya International School, Canadian International School Hong Kong

 If you have any other questions, feel free to email me (ITDirector@isd.sn). We will be communicating more specifically about the purchase of laptops for the ISD 1:1 program in the coming months, with the parents of current 8th graders. I will continue to write about technology developments @ ISD in JJ and on this blog in the weeks to come.