The 2014-2015 school year marks the first year in New Trier’s history when every student uses an iPad for their classes.
This year, technology has played the biggest role in the lives of both the students and the faculty. Some classes use the iPads for the occasional project, while others will use it for everything, from daily homework assignments to test, essays, and presentations.
The conventional Powerpoint presentation has been reinvented through applications like Prezi. Any document can be changed on multiple levels while using UPad. PDF Expert allows students to annotate and write any amount of notes on an already existing document. The list of examples continues on with one common thesis: the iPads open up a plethora of opportunities, big and small, to both students and staff.
The use of the iPads is exercised in unique personal ways. If a teacher feels it’s not appropriate to use the iPad, the academic decision is ultimately up to him or her. “One thing that makes New Trier unique is the preservation of autonomy for teachers,” said Jacqui Pritchard, Instructional Technology manager at New Trier. “New Trier hires highly-skilled teachers and the district trusts in their abilities. If a teacher decides that the iPad does not add value to a particular learning activity, he or she is empowered to leave those iPads in the backpacks.”
Ultimately, the iPads are a solution to technology for now. In the future, the demands will change, and so might the way that New Trier looks at technology in school.
Essentially, the iPad is an all-in-one device. As a result, one may be inclined to believe that the use of iPads may make the value of the computer labs decline slightly. According to Pritchard, it’s the opposite. The use of such technology in the labs is unique in that it provides software that plays a huge role both in the present and in the future. “I think there will always be a need for computer labs,” she stated. “They provide access to specialty software in curricular areas such as programming, CAD (computer- aided design), sequential art (animation software), the full Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator), and advanced video editinig (Final Cut Pro).”
While adapting to the new iPad curriculum is challenging for some, it certainly provides a more modern way of learning. Pritchard believes the iPads are a perfect fit for education now. “iPads make sense for New Trier today,” she says. “The district refers to this initiative as our ‘Mobile Learning Program’ because we understand that over time, the device may change. It’s not a device- specific program.”
A point of emphasis that Pritchard expressed is that technology is an ever-changing field, and it will be for a long time. “I think that technology will continue to adapt to support the changing needs of our world,” she said.
“The world’s issues are complex, and, therefore, we need to prepare young people. We need creative problem-solvers and collaborators, and synthesizers and analysts of information/data. Our technology will continue to reflect these changing needs.”