I feel very fortunate to support Manhattan Beach Unified School District (MBUSD) as an educational technologist consultant where the leadership, our superintendent, Dr. Mike Matthews, and our School Board, strive for effective technology integration into the classroom. This is a success story of using iPads in the classroom and the chapters will continue to unfold because of the supportive leadership, as well as the teachers, parents, students and our strong community. This was a huge student-focused effort kicked off about two and a half years ago to help provide students with the best possible tool to learn at their own pace, when they were ready, in and out of the classrooms. Grades five through eight have a 1 to 1 iPad program and other grades share iPad carts throughout the district. Technology tools in the hands of students eager to learn is mind blowing, pure genius. I wonder what students will create and invent in their lifetime that will blow us away, like the innovative leaders of Apple and Google have created in our lifetime.
MBUSD's leadership continues to expand the role of technology in school trying to reach more students within the financial constraints of their budget. California spends less per student than most every other state in the nation. This fall Mira Costa High School will launch a bring your own device (BYOD) program which looks bright and promising. I feel this is perfect because students need choice; choice of device and applications. My daughter will be heading off to Mira Costa High School in another year and I wonder if she will bring an iPad, Mac laptop or Chromebook. She thinks she is all set with her iPad and bluetooth keyboard. Maybe that will be true. We will see in another year which device she will take to school everyday. Makes me crazy happy to even be able to say that it looks like she will have that decision to make.
This is my first year leading as an educational technologist consulting for the district. It is a big departure after three years of teaching 500 students every week in the Meadows Elementary School computer lab. This is an amazing new position, that I am passionate about. It is the leadership team's vision as a successful means to supporting students' learning and teachers in the classrooms. Having taught for three years, along with my background in engineering and computer science, I'm super excited about the new challenges integrating technology in the classrooms, beyond the computer labs. I'm proud to be a consultant and a parent of a student attending this innovative school district, an Apple Distinguished program, that has an effective school leadership team.
Image credit: Leadership Day 2013 Image by Scott McLeod, modified to use a red shoe image from Flicker: IMG_9817 Boreel fashion show by Bob Suir
MBUSD's leadership continues to expand the role of technology in school trying to reach more students within the financial constraints of their budget. California spends less per student than most every other state in the nation. This fall Mira Costa High School will launch a bring your own device (BYOD) program which looks bright and promising. I feel this is perfect because students need choice; choice of device and applications. My daughter will be heading off to Mira Costa High School in another year and I wonder if she will bring an iPad, Mac laptop or Chromebook. She thinks she is all set with her iPad and bluetooth keyboard. Maybe that will be true. We will see in another year which device she will take to school everyday. Makes me crazy happy to even be able to say that it looks like she will have that decision to make.
This is my first year leading as an educational technologist consulting for the district. It is a big departure after three years of teaching 500 students every week in the Meadows Elementary School computer lab. This is an amazing new position, that I am passionate about. It is the leadership team's vision as a successful means to supporting students' learning and teachers in the classrooms. Having taught for three years, along with my background in engineering and computer science, I'm super excited about the new challenges integrating technology in the classrooms, beyond the computer labs. I'm proud to be a consultant and a parent of a student attending this innovative school district, an Apple Distinguished program, that has an effective school leadership team.
Image credit: Leadership Day 2013 Image by Scott McLeod, modified to use a red shoe image from Flicker: IMG_9817 Boreel fashion show by Bob Suir
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