A combination of iPads and PC notebooks will keep the Mineola School District on the cutting edge of technology and transform the educational experience for middle schoolers.
That’s what Mineola Superintendent of Schools Michael Nagler told members of the Mineola Board of Education at last Thursday night’s meeting as part of a presentation that had been postponed in April.
The iPads have been a resounding success in their first year of usage, based on mid-year surveys the school district took among the more than 200 fifth graders who’ve been using the iPads for course work, and their parents.
A pilot program using PC notebooks among sixth graders in the middle school has been in place this semester.
Nagler said the idea of switching sixth graders to the notebooks was prompted by the ability to use Microsoft Office functions the iPad lacks, and acknowledged that there is a trade-off in usage.
“It’s not a touch screen. It doesn’t have [applications] on it,” Nagler said. “Therein lies the problem. No one platform does both.”
Nagler noted that, along with functionality the iPads lacked, the small notebooks were approximately half the cost of the iPads.
After the meeting, he estimated the cost of the notebooks at $235 apiece, translating to a cost of $50,760 for the 216 sixth graders who will be making the transition from iPads. Their iPads would be distributed to the incoming fifth grade class, which will be in the middle school next year. The money that had been set aside for more iPads would cover the cost of 300 notebooks, according to Nagler.
“It comes down to whether we stretch the program,” Nagler said. “Its not about the device. It’s the collaborating, the ability to solve a problem.”
Nagler said using the two devices would be an interim step preceding the likely development of a Microsoft tablet akin to the iPad, but incorporating Windows capabilities. He said he’s not certain about the future of classroom computing, but supposed it would include the capacity for secure storage of documents in “the cloud,” another segment of the internet.
In response to a question from board Vice President Christine Napolitano about what plans the district administration had for seventh graders, Nagler said those Windows 7 tablets would probably be what the school district would use to equip seventh graders as the program expands. He said notebooks would provide an opportunity for students to learn about platform capabilities.
“We’re supposed to be teaching them skills. Well, we never teach a Mac or a PC platform,” Nagler said.
The limited notebook pilot program was an instant hit among student using the machines, according to Vincent Interrante, who oversees it. Interrante said he had told Nagler he had misgivings about the students’ ability to adapt to using the notebooks. Nagler told him the kids would figure it out, and they did just that.
“They were able to navigate a [Microsoft] One-Note notebook program with ease,” Interrante said.
Interrante said the students very readily figured out how to create Excel documents and were sharing information to help one another along.
“You give them a program, like figuring out this program, and they see it as a challenge. Kids teach each other,” Nagler said.
Interrante said the One-Note notebook platform gives students the ability to organize their content, training them for more sophisticated skills they need to learn.
“This is a platform where they can use the skills they need, and it takes it to another level. It’s a natural progressions,” he said.
Nagler recommended the board consider the options, including staying exclusively with iPads or adding the notebooks, at its June 16 meeting. The board members have universally applauded the level of interest and improved academic performance the fifth graders have demonstrated during the iPad pilot program.
“The biggest success we’ve had in Jackson Avenue this year is the level of engagement,” board President Terence Hale said.
In other developments, 12 district teachers were granted tenure, including:
• High school teachers Stacey Biondi Andrzejewski, reading teacher; science teacher Ellen McGlade-McCulloh and language teacher Giuseppa Iaboni
• Elementary school teachers Amanda Bernard, Kim Martino, Morgan Mercaldi and Courtney Zalkeski, from the Jackson Avenue School; Laura Kligman, Iylas Wilson and Maureen Wojis, from the Cross Street School and art teacher Jaclyn Manouvier and Jenny Amandolare from the Willis Avenue School.
