Redesigning Your High School with Technology

1. RedesigningYour High Schoolwith Technology Misty Slayter, Assistant Principal Cathy Martinez, Teacher Bolton High School Alexandria, LA

2. Welcometo Our Digital Academy!

3. What isthe Bolton Digital Academy? • is not a technology program. • isthe establishment of a 21st century learning environment where students: • learn to access, evaluate, communicate and make decisions with information using 21st century skills and tools. • learn to think and problem solve • is not necessarily designed to improve test scores, but rather to develop a deeper understanding of content. • This is a critical idea to communicate! • is a way to provide faculty, staff, and students with 1-1, 24x7 access to technology tools and curriculum resources. • most curriculum content provided via digital resources • is a focused effort to create a world-class educational environment.

4. Why Go Digital? • Relevant 21st century content and environment • Textbooks and technology support only incremental change - things may improve, but stay basically the same (recent articles on pulling the plug on laptop programs) • Technology and a total digital environment facilitate a transformation of the teaching process and students’ thinking processes. • Efficient and effective • Students have access to totally up-to-date and relevant content • Teachers can choose the best resources available for a given topic

5. RPSB’s Vision for theBolton Digital Academy • Communication • Connect school to students, staff, community, and the world • Collaboration • Students work with each other, their teachers, their community, and their world • Content • Provide information, resources, and experiences students need to be successful • Creativity • The school as a center for critical thinking, exploration, and innovation • Assessment • Authentic 21st century to measure how well students think

6. So What Does a Successful Digital Classroom Look Like? • Students work individually or in small teams to solve engaging problems or answer compelling questions. They are synthesizing their own experience, ideas from the [teacher], and sources that they can find on the Web. • The teacher has come down from the lectern and is moving throughout the room, watching what students are doing, asking questions, posing challenges … • Periodically the action is stopped. The teacher instructs the class to close their laptops,… They talk. They share their insights, their solutions, and their obstacles. The Socratic exchange is fueled by the insights developed through electronic inquiry. The powerful face-to-face questioning isn't competing with the laptops; instead, it depends on it. Source: John Overmyer, Laptops in the classroom: Mend it, don’t end it., www.csmonitor.com/2007/0515/p09s01-coop.html

7. Basic Structure ofBolton Digital Academy • Juniors, seniors, and GT classes received laptops in fall • Freshmen and Sophomores in January • Core courses are all digital • New teaching strategies • All-digital content • Community hotspots • Internet cafe • Campus-wide wireless • On-site repair center • 600+ laptops equipped with asset recovery device (Lojack) • Assignments posted and graded in digital environment • Full parental involvement with content and assignments

8. How Bolton Became Digital • The Beginnings • Meeting in New Orleans - Summer 2006 • Bolton uniquely qualified for two grants - • Virtue Foundation grant of 160 Mac iBook notebook computers • Award of a $ 220,000 LADOE HiTech grant • Meeting with staff and faculty (January 2007) • Visit to Empire High School, AZ (March 2007) • Visited with superintendent, faculty, and students • Observed classes

9. How Bolton Became Digital • Early Stages (Spring/Summer 2007) • Faculty meetings to share vision, process, and timeline • Teachers received laptops • Early spring - placed wireless carts at school with two instructional technology facilitators • Teachers taught with labs • Staff development • Met with parents • Spring/summer curriculum development

10. How Bolton Became Digital • Summer 2007 • Wireless/server infrastructure • Built on-site repair center • Ordered all materials/equipment • Developed Board-approved laptop agreement • Met with community representatives regarding community hotspots • Purchased Lojack • Imaged 300 computers the week before school started • Distributed laptops with student/parent training • Continuing teacher Professional Development with on-site instructional facilitator to support instruction

11. How Bolton Became Digital • 2007-2008 School Year • All remaining teachers receive notebooks and basic Mac Professional Development • Facilitators work with 9th and 10th grade teachers with two new wireless carts during fall semester • 9th and 10th grade students receive laptops and training • Facilitators continue to work with all teachers and students through the spring semester

12. Technical Infrastructure • Managed 3Com wireless network • 55 access points - campus -wide • Redundant management switches • Intel-based MacBook computers • Apple xServe with Remote Desktop • RAID 1 • Students’ computers locked down except for document and desktop space • Student data is backed up to server on login and logout • Mobile content filter • Full-time on-site repair center with spares

13. Digital Resources • Not simply textbooks on disk! • Subscription-based curriculum content • ABC-CLIO for social studies • Gizmos for math and science • Visual Thesaurus • Non-subscription Internet resources • Content software • Geometer’s Sketchpad and Fathom for math and statistics • Debate master • Microsoft Office • Inspiration • Management • Blackboard • Turnitin • Gaggle filtered student email • Mobile content filtering • Projectors in all rooms with whiteboards growing in number

14. What Can MacBooks Dofor Your Classes? • Collect, Display, Analyze, & Share Data • Ready Access to Tutorials, Historical Documents, Accurate Maps, and Enrichment • Electronic Submission & Grading of Certain Assignments • Internet Access to Authentic Science Activities and Complex Datasets

15. Blackboard Lets You Manage Delivery and Assignments

16. TurnitinLets You Go Paperless! Screenshot courtesy of Turnitin

17. ABC CLIO is a Powerful Social Studies Database! Screenshot courtesy of ABC CLIO

18. FathomHelps with Graphing Data! • See attached handout for directions to graph data with Fathom 2 software.

19. Geometer’s Sketchpad Makes Math Come Alive!

20. The Internet Is aTreasure Trove of Activities • Simulations • Tutorials • Authentic Science Activities • Complex Data Sets • Graphics and Animations • Videos

21. PhET Simulations--Downloadable and Free!

22. Gizmos Provide Structured Math/ScienceSimulations and Assessments Screenshot courtesy of ExploreLearning

23. Other Great Sites

24. Grab Their Attention with Graphics and Animation! is great! Here’s one from the Multimedia Physics Studios:

25. Links • Bolton High School Digital Academy • http://www.rapides.k12.la.us/bda/ • Turn It In • http://www.turnitin.com • ABC CLIO • http://www.socialstudies.abc-clio.com • PhET Simulations • http://phet.colorado.edu/new/simulations/ • Gizmos • http://www.explorelearning.com/ • Toll-Free 1-866-882-4141 • For sales info., email sales@explorelearning.com

26. Links, cont. • Amusement Park Physics http://www.learner.org/interactives/parkphysics/ • UC Berkeley Physics Demonstrations http://www.mip.berkeley.edu/physics/ • MIT OpenCourseWare http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-01Physics-IFall1999/CourseHome/index.htm • The Physics Classroom http://www.physicsclassroom.com/ • Multimedia Physics Studios http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/gbssci/phys/mmedia/index.html#top

27. Contact Us Bolton High School 2101 Vance Ave. Alexandria, LA 71301 (318) 448-3628 http://www.rapides.k12.la.us/bolton/ Email Misty at slayterm@rapides.k12.la.us Email Cathy at martinezc@rapides.k12.la.us