IPad Technology and Social Networking--The Next Big Thing For K-12 Schools?

The two major weaknesses in American education at the K-12 level is both its lethargic pace of innovation within schools and their glacial response to the rapid rate of change with technology. Currently on the market and readily available is technology that could revolutionize the learning experiences for struggling learners and kids with learning differences.  Unfortunately, school districts, even here around Silicon Valley, are still not taking advantage of this technology to help our struggling learners.  Also, there is cutting edge technology that has the potential to revolutionize teaching and learning within the regular education classroom.  Even a change as simple as introducing Tablet Technology could have a major impact in the classroom.  

Earlier this week, Sacred Heart Prep announced that their incoming freshman class will be receiving the iPad 2 tablet in a new rollout of their 1:1 tablet program.  Last August, Saint Ignatius up in San Francisco was also poised to roll out a 1:1 tablet program for its students.  It is an interesting concept and one that public school districts on the Peninsula should consider--especially during these difficult economic times.  It is during these times of great challenge that we should look for evermore creative ways to innovate and improve the way we teach and learn.  Hidden within these opportunities can be some significant savings to the bottom line--either from a reduction in expenses or from an increase in revenue by drawing additional students to the local school district.  

Even though public schools are struggling under the current fiscal crisis, the fact is most school districts maintain a large technology budget to support the obsolete model of centralized computer labs, desktop computers, notebooks, and on-site servers.  But, strategic planning around technology could actually save money for charter schools and school districts if they were to consider off loading their local servers, outsourcing technology support, or rolling out a tablet program to replace the less effective educational model of centralized computer labs and notebook computers.   Tablets are less expensive than notebooks; allow students to work anywhere on campus; and require minimal tech support compared to the high maintenance of other technology.  

Local school districts around the Peninsula are likely spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in technology leases, maintenance and support.  At Charter Learning Center, we have saved thousands of dollars a year in server maintenance and support by off-loading most of our local servers and accessing cloud tecnhnology in order to minimize our costs.  Moving our servers off-site and taking advantage of our technology-focused parent volunteer community has helped us to reduce school technology costs by more than 40% over the last three years.  

At San Carlos Charter Learning Center, we established a 1:1 notebook program for our 7th and 8th grade learners back in 2008.  Our 5th and 6th graders have an almost 1:1 ratio for notebook computers.  Learners in grades three and four have a 3:1 ratio for notebook computers.  As a result, we are able to leverage our technology to offer innovative learning experiences.  For example, our learners regularly blog with the educators.  In addition, educators and learners will take advantage of Google Docs in order to collaborate both during and after school.  These are just a few examples of the kinds of ways we use technology.  

As an aside, I feel the desire to express one frustration with technology.  With our increasingly technology rich learning environment, I have come to personally despise PowerPoint presentations.  If there was one thing I could unilaterally change in my school community, it would be to limit the number of Power Point presentations that learners would be allowed to create each year.  

This year, four Charter Learning Center educators are piloting the iPad 2 technology to explore ways in which both educators and learners could use tablets to enhance the learning experience.  Our PE educator, Christine Harris, is using her iPad2 to offer both audio and visual feedback during skill development units by taking video of learners and providing opportunity for the kids to see themselves and make adjustments to their technique.    

Educators will be presenting their findings to the rest of our teaching staff in August.  In addition to the four educators who are piloting the technology, our learners in grades K-8 also have access to five other iPad 2 learner tablets.  Some of our parents have helped to support this endeavor by creating iPad apps around both math and reading comprehension.  

It has been an exciting year for our learners and state of the art technology to support student learning is critical to the success of our educational program.  As technology continues to move at the speed of light, the tablet technology has reached a critical point where both price point and quality of the equipment makes the transition to an all tablet school community hard to resist.  

What is on the horizon for technology and education?  I am thinking that the next Big Thing will be the integration of social network technology within the classroom learning experience.  Don't be surprised if, in just three years, texting and real-time, online feedback for educators will be a regular part of the classroom discussion! Cell phone technology will no longer be banned at school but, instead required in some classrooms.  For you technophobes, beware. In some schools around the country, social network technology in classrooms is already here. More on that later.