It has been a busy year for technology in Orange County Schools (OCS). To be effective, technology and teachers must work together to provide challenging learning opportunities. Using technology to enhance the curriculum changes the learning process in several ways:
- Students learn through involvement with authentic, challenging tasks that use skills and knowledge across disciplines.
Students take on new roles. Students become responsible for their learning. Creating cool looking timelines, videos, or other dynamic presentations can be a lot of fun. When a student realizes that they can easily make the resulting creation available for viewing on the Internet, it can be pretty exciting!- Teachers become mentors and are able to spend more one on one time with each student instead of the traditional teacher lecture model.
- Technology creates a culture that supports learning both in the classroom and beyond the school walls.
Other districts are looking at the OCS model of technology use and implementation. They are impressed when they see our students engaged, collaborating and working enthusiastically on their assignments. A teacher moving about the room having conversations with students and guiding them to additional resources or making suggestions on student work creates a team atmosphere.
One positive effect of the laptop program is how teachers are sharing with other teachers. Whether it is how to do something, a new website they have found, a project that went really well or just how to upload a file into Moodle, teachers are communicating, sharing and creating a “team” approach to their professional development for digital lessons and devices.
Moodle as the learning management system has been another positive aspect of laptop use for most. Some reflections from teachers at a recent professional development:
- Math department: “Moodle is a big help for kids who are absent, lose things, or need to study for makeup assignments. Also Moodle is a great way to distribute handouts and pose resources for class use for homework assignments, projects, etc.”
- World Languages: “Moodle helps to manage student work.”
- History department: “Good for research/project based learning, submitting work and cutting down on missed assignments.”
- CTE department: “Moodle works well for home-bound and absences so students are not behind.”
Although it cannot be said that all the positive data from months 1-4 on attendance and discipline (see chart) is directly correlated to the laptop program, you just have to walk the halls of our schools to know the laptop program is having positive effects on the educational program in OCS. The district is continuously asking for input from teachers and students on how we can improve to make the use of laptops in the classroom more effective.
Elementary Digital Conversion
Next year Grades 3-4-5 will be moving to digital devices. The elementary digital conversion committee is discussing what this digital device would need to be able to do, making suggestions for professional development, answering questions from colleagues and parents concerning the use of technology at the elementary level and evaluating different devices and their appropriateness for their students. A report will go to the Superintendent with their findings in March.
Questions or Comments
Contact:
Angie Veitch
Director of Technology & Media
Orange County Schools
1914 New Hope Church Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
919-245-4100 x1
angie.veitch@orange.k12.nc.us
Arts & Laptops in Orange County Schools: The arts teachers at Orange High School have found creative uses for the new student laptops in their classes. While visual art students drew and painted images they were viewing on their laptops, drama students studied monologues on theirs. In the band room, students from four different grade levels studied/practiced music theory skills. Click HERE to view a slideshow of our students working with their laptops in drama, band and visual art classes.
Why is Orange County Schools thinking about this now?
1:1 in the News!
In January, Governor Perdue visited A.L. Stanback to learn more about technology and the 1:1 program in our schools. Click on the image above to see photo highlights of the visit!
Presentation to the NCSBA: Top Ten Strategies for a
Successful Digital Conversion
(To view correctly, continue clicking on the image to advance through the slideshow)
Discovery Education Science at Gravelly Hill Middle School
Click HERE to see download and view video presented to NCSBA
WRAL Visits Orange County Schools to learn more
about our 1:1 Laptop Initiative!
Questions or Comments
Contact:
Angie Veitch
Director of Technology & Media
Orange County Schools
1914 New Hope Church Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
919-245-4100 x1
angie.veitch@orange.k12.nc.us