iPads

As many of you know, the school now has 30 iPads for student use.  These iPads are housed in a charging cart in Sarah Niesen's room.  The iPads were purchased to support a Classroom Action Research project that Sarah and Jane Danley are doing in conjunction with the UW.  Sarah and Jane have also taken courses through MMSD on the management and use of iPads in the classroom.  At this point I consider this year  "pilot" year for the use of these devices in support of language and content learning.  This pilot includes monitoring the effectiveness of the devices to engage students and increase learning, as well as the building's technical capacity to support this quantity of wireless devices.  I hope to continue to build our collection in years to come.

Unfortunately, NMCS does not have a great history for keeping track of technology.  Seven iPads were purchased last year and only 4 remain.  The computer carts are frequently missing charging cords and even computers.  I know we can do better than this with a little more procedural clarity.  For this reason, I am asking that the iPads not leave Sarah's room until we have developed a systematic method for reserving and keeping track of the devices.

Because Sarah and Jane are involved in the CAR project, they will have priority access for the remainder of this year.  I certainly don't want to completely restrict use of the iPads for other students in the building, however.

If you would like to gain access to these devices, please present me (in writing) with your unit and lesson plans detailing how the iPads will support the learning outcomes of the unit/lesson.

Please do not ask Sarah if you can use the iPads.

These are not inexpensive devices, as you all know, and the goal here is to ensure that they are used properly and therefore must be introduced to students appropriately.  Thanks.