By Kristy O’Connell
Parents and students have responded well to the Sewanhaka Central High School District’s effort to use iPads in classrooms in the first year of the initiative, district officials said Tuesday.
Cheryl Champ, the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, and Christopher Nelson, the director of student achievement instructional technologies, made a presentation on Tuesday to the Sewanhaka school board about the progress of the Future Ready Sewanhaka program, a digital learning program implemented in September with the goal of facilitating the use of technology in classrooms.
Nelson said the introduction of iPads is meant to serve as a source of creativity and personalized learning for students. In a districtwide public survey, 90 percent of participating students responded that they think iPads facilitate individualized learning, he said.
More than 70 percent of parents who participated in the survey said they attributed their children’s increased engagement and achievement to the use of iPads in the classroom.
In September 2016, incoming seventh-graders at the district’s five high schools were the first group to receive iPads, with eighth-graders getting them last February.
To date, 3,500 devices have been distributed, and 1.3 million digital documents have been posted and shared since September, Nelson said.
Since the rollout, training has been offered to teachers to boost their confidence in teaching in a digital classroom, said Nelson.
The district plans to distribute iPads to all students over three years, funded by $3.2 million from the state’s SMART Schools Bond Act, which funds technology purchases in districts across New York.
Devices will continue to be rolled out in September to incoming seventh- and 10th-graders.
The need for equity of resources among students of different economic backgrounds was especially important when considering the need for iPads in the classroom, Champ told the school board on Tuesday.
This summer, free application training will be offered to teachers at participating Apple stores. The district is also set to host an Apple/Google Summit on Aug. 2 and 3.
Following the presentation, Champ and Nelson played a video made by an eighth-grader as part of a digital assignment, which they said was part of a project-based assessment strategy by eighth-grade teachers.
Champ described the video as the perfect example of the engagement and personalization that digital learning provides.
But Mini Pothen, a parent in the district who lives in New Hyde Park, expressed concern about the use of iPads in the classroom, asking the board to review and reevaluate the implementation of the tablet computers.
Pothen, a psychologist, said the research surrounding the long-term effects of digital consumption at such a young age is concerning, noting the potential for digital addiction, which she says may negatively impact a child’s temperament and brain development.
