iPads Find Their Place In The Classroom At St Rose

By Eliza Hallabeck

After roughly two years of effort and research, St Rose of Lima School has launched a new educational endeavor: iPads are being utilized throughout the school for a wide range of uses.

Teachers and students are using the tablet computers to expand learning, take notes, and mark schedules.

Last year the school implemented the use of iPads in its prekindergarten curriculum, integrating the use of the tablet computers with the SmartBoard technology already in place. The school’s resource room also had iPads last year, which helped to gauge the educational value of the technology for this year. St Rose of Lima School Principal Mary Maloney said the school found iPads really do hold educational value.

Since implementing the larger use of iPads this school year, “student learning has really taken off,” said Ms Maloney.

The first couple weeks of school have been exciting, she said, and in different classes teachers have been using the technology available through the devices.

In a music class on Tuesday, September 25, teacher David Armistead oversaw the students playing and composing music using electronic keyboards connected to iPads.

Not only is the use of electronic keyboards and iPads portable, said Mr Armistead, but students also have the ability to layer different styles of music into their compositions using Apple’s Garage Band software.

“It’s a good portable studio, and a piano as well,” said Mr Armistead.

Many people were involved in making the use of iPads possible, says Ms Maloney, including a technology committee. St Rose of Lima’s David Cirella, who oversees technology, was instrumental, Ms Maloney said.

An iPad Acceptable Use Policy was created to help monitor the use of the devices and provide information about the care of the products.

Most schools that use iPads in the classroom, Mr Cirella said, either provide school-owned devices to students or have a “bring your own device” option. At St Rose of Lima, the program is different. All iPads used in kindergarten through third grade are owned by the school, and for students in fourth through eighth grade families had the option of purchasing the devices, either through the school or on their own. Ms Maloney said a payment plan was made available for parents if a direct payment was not possible.

Once the devices were obtained by the school, training was held for faculty members, including three days of professional development in the summer, and students who had ordered their devices in advance were also trained in the school’s Gathering Hall during one day in the summer, allowing the students time to become familiar with their new devices.

Oversight of the devices is done through a management software, says Mr Cirella. Each iPad, whether school owned or purchased, is registered with a website that allows St Rose of Lima to enforce restrictions on the devises while used at school. Use of the tablet computers’ cameras, for instance, can be restricted during classes and periods when teachers specify they will not be helpful for learning and turned on for when they will be useful.

“They are using the cameras quite a bit,” said St Rose teacher Marde Dimon, regarding her science classes.

For one project — frog dissection — Ms Dimon said the students used the iPads to photograph the specimens then create diagrams based on their photos, rather than the traditional hand-sketched depictions.

Apps available on the iPad have also been helping to further enrich the curriculum, like Ms Dimon’s use of “The Elements,” an app created by Theodore Gray. The Elements is essentially an interactive periodic table, but also much more than that.

“The pictures and the graphics are just phenomenal,” said Ms Dimon.

Scrolling through The Elements, Ms Dimon touched her finger to Carbon, and pulled up a nearly three-dimensional representation, an explanation, and an option for further information about the element.

“Talk about engaging the students,” said Ms Maloney, while Ms Dimon demonstrated the app.

The Elements is not the only app being used at St Rose; Ms Dimon also likes a frog dissection app and has plans to incorporate another app when teaching her students about weather patterns later in the school year.

Ms Maloney also said the iPads will also be used to test first grade students three times during the school year for bench mark assessments required by the Diocese of Bridgeport.

Before the school year even began, a donation from a parent made the installation of the school’s wireless infrastructure possible, allowing students and teachers to access the Internet throughout the campus.

Ms Maloney said this year will be a transition for using the technology, and for students who do not have access to an iPad, the school provides computers.

For the future Ms Maloney sees interactive text books as the next big area to focus on for educational technology, and so far the school community has responded well to the use of the iPads.

“The kids have really embraced it,” said Mr Cirella.