NY Daily News herald's Xaverian's iPad roll out

[Kevin McCormack]

http://nydn.us/hzinvA

Xaverian Freshmen to get iPads

 

In Today's NY Daily news our school, Xaverian, highlighted.  Denis Hammil spoke of the School's commitment to cutting edge technology.   As I posted earlier, my school is getting ready for the first step of One to One computing with the iPad at the center of this.  

We chose the ipad because of several factors:

1. Form Factor

The tablet can't act as a screen between student and teacher and it fits neatly in the space a school desk offers.

2. Ease of use

Is it me or does it seem that the younger a child is - the more intuitively they understand the iPad?

3. Adaptability

I love the fact that as we grow in our understanding of how we work with the iPad, the ideas don't come from "on High" but rather through groups of people - regardless of their station in the school - working and sharing "best practices" over coffee!

 4. Price

for $499, your dollars buy quite a bit of quality with the iPad - especially compared to so many of the "rinky dink" PC netbook out there. 

5 Active participation

If we are at our best - The classroom is no longer a deposit of knowledge - but a community of learning.  

6. Cool factor

Ok I said it!  but whats so wrong about that?  That's why I bought my iPad, and my macbook, and my new iPhone and  . . .

 

More factors - later!

km

 

[Kevin McCormack]

The first step was getting the administration to buy into the vision of one to one computing, second we needed the support of our governing board.  next we are working on the faculty buy-in.  we are doing this in a rolling fashion.  I gave out 18 ipads to "geeky" faculty.  it has started a buzz - with in the week we will be getting another 20/25 out to the next level of faculty.  They are expected to vet out the best apps for their subject.  

- we were we lucky enough to "snag" Fraser Speirs for a few days and we worked out a bunch of ideas and thoughts.  Regarding the use and choice of apps we were struggling between "draconian control" & "Libertarian freedom"  we are leaning towards having the Kids responsible for synching the specific apps the teacher demands.  We will have establish apps like iWorks, a standard Bible & dictionary, etc.  It is exciting stuff.  Still working on $$$$.  I will keep you posted. 

[Offie Clark]

What exactly is the "first step" in your ipad 1:1? Are you giving them to students in the middle of this year? are you piloting the ipads with certain classes or grades?

How much planning with the teachers and administrators did you and your technology people have to do, are your teachers willing to play and experiment or do they need a lot of guidance about apps and classroom function?

In your ipad implementation are you giving everyone the same set of basic tools/apps or are you letting teachers decide which apps students will need for their particular class? We are trying to have an institutional app "toolbox" for as many apps and functions as we can.

please keep us informed about how your ipad implementation is going i look forward to hearing more

[Sam Gliksman]

Congratulations Kevin/Mac. Look forward to hearing how things develop for you.