CORVALLIS, Ore. — It is a big year for three schools in
the Corvallis School District, where every single student will have access to
his or her own iPad.
It’s out with the old technology, and in with the new as
the Corvallis School District makes plans to move forward with technology.
Linus Pauling Middle School, Cheldelin Middle, and Mountain View Elementary are
all going 1:1 this year. One-to-one, meaning one Apple iPad for every student.
“We’re really excited,” said Superintendent Erin Prince.
“We have a new initiative called One to World.”
One to World: connecting every child, every day, to the
future.
Dr. Erin Prince says it’s about opening the classroom
doors to the world through the Internet and the immediate resources that iPads
provide.
“This is not about the gadget,” Prince said. “It’s about
changing the teaching and learning for our teachers and students. And about
closing the opportunity gap.”
Prince says 275
kids in the district are homeless and do not have the same access to
technology as other students.
“The iPads create an opportunity to close the gap between
the haves and the have-nots,” Prince said.
The district says the benefits of the iPads outweigh the
cost – a sum of $1 million per year to maintain. But Prince says the district
has been able to shift funds in order to purchase the tablets.
“The funds are not coming away from the teachers, but
they’re funds we would normally use for other materials,” Prince said.
She says with iPads, the district will save a huge sum on
items such as computers, laptops, textbooks, and paper materials.
So why iPads? Why not a different type of tablet?
“We like the iPads because of the immediate
connectivity,” Prince said. “But there’s the ability with iTunes University and
iBooks to create curriculum. We’ll have access to free resources that have been
built by professors across the country, teachers, and students.”
The district says it spent a great deal of time looking
at different tablets and laptops, but decided the iPad was the best route.
Prince says the district has set up a management system on the devices, so
teachers can lock students into a particular app during class. The district is
also able to block students from downloading particular apps on their iPads.
Administrators say despite the new wave of technology,
the school libraries aren’t going anywhere. Some textbooks might disappear in
order for teachers to use more current tools online, but novels and other book
resources will still be available in the schools.
“I know there might be some fear that kids sitting under
a tree reading a book – that those days are over,” said Assistant
Superintendent Kevin Bogartin. “I don’t think those days are over, but I think
maybe the days of the huge psychology textbook that you might lug around –
those might be over.”
Prince says the middle schoolers will be able to take
their iPads home with them to use after school. Though only three schools have
full implementation of iPads, she says there are other departments within the
district that have the tablets already. She says this is just the first phase
of the iPad rollout, and students at all other schools can expect to see the
tablets soon.
“We hope to scale this project to include the whole
district by next year,” Prince said.
Because this is the first huge iPad distribution within
the district, Prince says there will be challenges. Not all teachers know how
to use the iPads yet, but the district is hosting workshops next week to get
everyone on board.
“If we wait for the adults to be ready with our
technology, it will never happen. And we don’t have time to wait.”
