TECHNOLOGY Initiative

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TECHNOLOGY

Initiative

2012 – 2017

Northside Christian Academy

333 Jeremiah Boulevard, Charlotte, NC 28262 - 704-602-2283

Submitted by:

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Northside Christian Academy, Est. 1961

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To School Committee Members:

I am pleased to provide you with the attached report on the Project 1-2-1

iPad initiative for Northside Christian Academy. This report addresses the

educational value of the program, the management/tech support

requirements, the initial funding mechanism, and the long term impact on

the operational budget.

The primary importance is the educational value this program brings to our

students. With this program, I stand convinced that the educational impact

on student learning can be tremendous and the educational possibilities are

endless. In addition to the educational benefits, you will find in the report

data that shows there is no negative effect on the operational budget. In fact,

it is a fiscally responsible decision relative to technology purchases for the

Academy.

After considerable research, discussion, and debate on a 1-to-1 program, the

administrative team enthusiastically supports this initiative and is excited

about the educational opportunities that it lends to teaching and learning in

the 21st Century.

As your Head of School, I wholeheartedly and enthusiastically recommend

Project 1-2-1 initiative.

Sincerely,

Tony Fajardo, Head of School

Northside Christian Academy

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Educational Impact

What is the overall reason(s) for implementing Project 1-2-1 initiative?

We want our students, who are living in the 21st century, to have a 21st century

educational experience. A 1-to-1 iPad learning environment is the model for technology in the Academy that will best support 21st century teaching and learning.

 Is there any research to support the implementation of a 1-to-1 iPad learning

program?

o Conclusions drawn from available research is that the 1-to-1 learning experience provides many positive outcomes for students, staff, and the community. Among the outcomes mentioned most are:

 Improved writing skills and depth of students’ research.

 Increased student interest in learning and ownership of the learning process.

 Improvement in student and staff attendance.  Reductions in student behavior problems.  Increased parental interest in school activities.  Improved student and staff morale.

 Reductions in lecture/presentation instruction and an increase in project based learning activities.

 What’s the main benefit of a 1-to-1 iPad program to the students and teachers?

o Currently, with limited computer labs and computers in the classroom, teachers need to share the usage of technology with other teachers making access to technology a planned event and not always there when needed, when it can have the most impact on instruction. With a 1-to-1 program, teachers will be able to respond to questions or discussions immediately instead of trying to anticipate the need and scheduling time to go to a lab.

 How does the 1-to-1 iPad initiate meet the curricular goals of the Academy? o The Academy is currently in the process of updating and realigning our

curriculum with a particular emphasis on five 21st century learning goals. The iPad initiative will help to enhance our development in each of these areas:

 Critical Thinking

 The iPad supports learning in the way student’s think. By putting a world of easily searchable information at their fingertips, inquiry based learning becomes more possible. Students will be able to direct their own learning with the

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teacher acting as a facilitator and guide rather than sage of knowledge. Inquiry based learning demands that students develop critical thinking skills in order to solve problems and find answers to questions. Additionally, as students have more ownership of their learning, engagement in the process increases. Several studies indicate that there is a clear correlation between student engagement and retention of material. Control studies show a clear increase in student engagement in schools and classrooms that integrate 1-to-1 technology effectively. Increased student engagement coupled with interactive tools will increase the opportunity for deep inquiry based learning experiences.

 Communication

 Faculty, students, parents, and administrators will have increased communication tools with the iPads. Every student will have an email that teachers will have easy access to. Teachers can send email reminders to students, teachers websites can be set up with RSS feeds, QR codes on handouts/activities, increase ease of communication while decreasing the need to consume resources (paper, time, etc.) to do so. Additionally, various applications allow for increased communication between students, increasing the opportunities for collaboration.

 Collaboration

 Student collaboration becomes easier to manage. Students are “always” connected to each other. Cloud based

applications eliminate the “he’s not here, and has all our work” disruptions. Teachers have increased ability to monitor collaboration, teach collaboration skills and procedures and give the “academic work” of investigating, synthesizing and creating to the students.

 Creativity

 iPads become the catalyst to increased creativity in

numerous areas of our organization. “We can’t because we don’t have (the resources, time, and interest) as an excuse is eliminated. Teachers have unlimited ways of integrating content, skills and assessment into meaningful and

engaging experiences for students. Students have unlimited options in demonstrating their understanding and abilities.

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Increased connectivity allows for greater flexibility in bringing teams of people together to solve problems, iPads also allow for greater creativity in our curricular offerrings. As an example, the student help center that is central to the success of this initiative will allow some of our students to capitalize on their innate interest and talent in technology, an opportunity we did not have before.

 Information & Media Literacy (digital literacy)

 Students and teachers will be required to evaluate the innumerable tools at their fingertips. Evaluation of sources, perspectives, and purpose will become the focus of

conversations as new applications and uses are introduced. We not only want to educate students using the tools of the 21st century they are living in, but how to successfully evaluate and use those tools.

 Does the iPad take the place of the textbook?

o We cannot at this time say if all textbooks will be replaced. We do believe that this is a future trend and with a 1-to-1 iPad learning program we will be well positioned to take advantage of the cost savings, flexibility, ability to customize, and other advantages to having electronic textbooks.

 How does this program affect our special education students? o This program can have a very positive impact on all our students,

especially our special education students because technology offers many programs and tools that will support their needs and give them better access to the curriculum. Most of these programs and tools are available for free and include the following:

 Web-based course management and other software that allows teachers to post class materials and assignments on-line which especially helps students with organizational issues. These

resources also promote collaborative research and writing projects.  A vast number of free on-line resources that can be used to

enhance learning such as virtual math manipulates, virtual science labs, customized quiz and vocabulary building software, podcasts and numerous language learning resources, on-line primary documents from our national archives and much more.

 Easy to use multimedia tools that give students another way to demonstrate and share their understanding of content. “Show what they know”.

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 Multi-media delivery methods are facilitated by the use of a iPad for those students who have difficulty reading or those who have difficulty following the spoken word.

 There are many apps that allow for text to speech, graphic organizers, and story builders.

 There are a wide variety of apps for students on the Autism spectrum.

 How will the faculty be supported through this transition?

o Timing is of the essence to provide our teachers the training, resources, and support required to make this initiative successful. Ideally,

professional development would proceed as follows:

April

•Use the teacher PD

day to - •Issue iPads to teachers •Provide initial training

May

•Host voluntary after school PD sessions •App search &

evaluation during staff meetings •Provide second training

June

•Creat master list of required Apps for each department •Continue voluntary PD sessions to integrate iPads into instructional lesssons

July

•Student iPads loaded with master list of Apps for each department •Teacher PD during opening days on integrating iPad into lessons

August

•Ongoing PD •Staff meetings best practices •Voluntary after school sessions •App search &

evaluation during staff meetings •Provide third

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Educational Summary

Technology can help meet the needs of different intelligences, different learning styles and different learning paces. Our 1-to-1 iPad learning will put these tools in the hands of every student for anywhere, anytime learning.

The investment we make in this program will result in a much better educational value for our students than the traditional, 20th century technology model. Technology is available when needed, when it makes sense, when it will support teaching and learning.

Technology Equipment Consideration

The Academy’s goal is to increase achievement and engagement in a 21st

century teaching and learning environment where each student has a mobile computing device to use at school and home.

Keeping this goal in mind along with the operational challenges of security, support, training, and professional development, initiative costs, and classroom integration, the “Tablet” computing device was deemed the best choice for Northside Christian Academy.

While several tablet computing devices exist on the market today, iPad is the choice of Northside replacing the need to purchase any further interactive boards, graphing calculators, document cameras, computer labs, student response systems, and more.

 Why iPads?

o Beyond the operational challenges of security, support, battery life and price, iPads satisfy the classroom integration and student performance opportunities are why iPads are the Distrct’s choice in a computing device.

 Apps for Education

 With iPad, the classroom is always at Student and Teacher fingertips with thousands of educational apps available to download. Students can track their assignments, take notes, and study for finals. Teachers can give lessons, monitor progress and stay organized. Just to name a few.

 Productivity

 Productivity applications help students and teacher put together professional-looking documents, presentations, and spreadsheets no matter where they are. Simple-to-use

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and easy to create presentations with stunning animations and effects.

 iBooks

 iPad features a vibrant color screen, crisp text, and Multi-Touch interface that lets you turn pages with the flick of a finger. Simply download the free iBooks app and once you’ve downloaded a book, it appears on your bookshelf. Just tap it to start reading. Easy-to-use tools let you keep your place with bookmarks, highlight text and dates, and make notes. You can also save read, and print PDFs – great for class handouts, research papers, and more.

 Notes

 With its expensive display and large, onscreen keyboard, iPad is perfect for taking notes in class. In landscape view, you see not only a note-taking page but a list of all your notes. iPad even circles the current note in red, so you can see where you are at a glance.

 Video Mirroring

 With Video mirroring, HDTV’s or LCD projectors become a bigger version of the iPad in the classroom so Students can share and collaborate with other Students. Video mirroring makes it possible to teach using educational iPad apps, movies, videos, and more. iPads are interactive whiteboards in every Student’s hands.

Technology Support/ Operations

The Academy conducted an extensive review of the technology support and operational challenges such an initiative would have on the school. The key components of this review were in the areas of Ownership, Security, Network Access, Technology Support, and Equipment Replacement.

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Ownership

The question of “ownership” is an important one. While some 1-to-1 initiatives require Parents/Guardians to purchase and furnish the computing devices at their expense, The Academy has chosen the option of school owned devices as this option addresses the support, security and operational challenges faced.

As an asset of Northside Christian Academy, the Academy shall mandate, regulate, and lock the computing devices for educational and security purposes only.

Security

The Academy shall deploy stringent security measures through the use of content filtering software, hardware, monitoring application, and security locked equipment distributed to Students. Students Security is the Academy’s priority.

The monitoring application will be installed on each iPad. Once installed, all settings will be remotely managed, individual user account information automatically deployed, and enables the Academy to view and track all user activity on each machine with efficient reporting notices.

Student Email and Network Access

The Academy will provide each Student with a school e-mail account. The Students will only have the ability to e-mail Students and Staff within the Academy’s environment. Students will not have the ability to send or receive emails from outside the Academy’s environment.

Student “real-time” collaboration and teaming on projects can be achieved by providing these accounts as Studetns can share documents with fellow Students and Teachers storing up to 1 gigabit of storage per Student. This also allows for Students to submit homework assignments, reports, papers, tests, and exams to their classroom Teachers,

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graded, and returned in an electronic, paperless form. Students may access their accounts from any computing device on or off site 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. For example if a Student prefers to work on a research paper from home on a desktop computer for screen and keyboard size, they may do so.

Student Insurance/Protection

The Academy will offer an insurance plan that covers Studetns’ iPads. The insurance will not be optional, and the school will mandate that parents purchase this insurance policy for their Student.

This insurance will protect against accidental damage (drops/spills), theft, vandalism, fire, flood, natural disasters, and power surge due to lightning strikes. The insurance policy will provide replacement cost coverage and protect the iPad on and off school grounds.

While multiple insurance providers exist, the school found annual rates range from $40 to $55 annually depending on coverage and deductibles, and with deductibles ranging from $25 to $100.

Funding - Technology Equipment

The budget for technology equipment for 2012-2013 totals $112,000 over three years and is included in the overall budget as part of our “technology fee”. It is important to note that the funding allowance for technology equipment shall not be used for any other construction category (i.e. building construction, athletic fields, designer fees, etc.). Also, it is important to know that this includes the wireless layout of our C-wing building.

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Conclusion

Northside Christian Academy can have a great deal of confidence that a solid process is underway to address the important issues impacting the school’s future when it comes to our technology needs. Key issues have been identified by the administrative team and have been submitted to the scrutiny of the School Committee and President.

These technology initiatives have been identified as strategic, meaning that they are more than just interesting explorations or welcomed additions to the program. Instead, they are essential to moving our technology program forward at Northside Christian Academy, and thus must be funded fully to be accomplished fully.

Because the administration provided the bulk of the impetus and involvement for this plan, the administration must pay particular attention to communicating and involving both the School Committee and the rest of the Northside Christian Academy staff in order to generate ownership and thereby increase the ability to realize the ambitious yet

necessary goals represented here.

This technology initiative plan in 2012-2017 school year is nominally identified with a five-year period, with the expectation that the next planning process would begin no later than year 5 of that cycle. As the future plan begins to be updated, it should not change this original timeline.

No one can see the future. Each person and institution must make decisions that provide the best opportunity of moving closer to the purposes that God has laid out for us. In all cases, we can depend on the Lord. Great things can happen if we remain focused on our goals and in constant prayer before our mighty Father in Heaven.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your