Last night, Neary School educators held a session to answer parents’ questions about the iPad Pilot.
More than 70 members of the community were in attendance (in addition to school representatives). The majority indicated they had 4th grade students at home.
The most notable comments of the night were from Superintendent Dr. Charles Gobron and Principal Linda Murdock. Both promised that they have no intention of implementing a project the community doesn’t want.
Gobron said that he may be a “little Pollyanic” but he hopes that they can come up with a program that addresses everyone’s concerns.
Gobron also addressed “comments from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education”. He has been speaking with someone from the department “to make sure anything we did was in compliance with [their] mandates”.
Murdock added that the school will be sending a survey out to parents of K-8 students to get feedback on how parents feel about the pilot. There will be an especially important section for parents of 4th graders. School officials need to know how many parents are planning to “opt in” vs “opt out”. Next steps will be determined after they see survey results.
Responding to a question, Murdock said they haven’t determined a “magic number” for how many need to opt in to make the pilot work. They know they can do it with overwhelming support. They can’t do it if they have very little support. The “middle” is unclear.
Parents courteously voiced specific concerns and questions that they didn’t feel were sufficiently addressed by the Frequently Asked Questions. Educators did their best to address the concerns. These included why the school won’t pay for the iPads, age appropriateness, the choice of technology, and clarification of a “seismic shift” to the way children are taught.
Funding was fielded by School Committee member Marybeth Strickland who said based on her long experience, it would never pass the budgeting process.
Strickland said that the school has been “treading water” with its budget in the last few years. The pilot goes beyond the definition of a”free and adequate education” that the town is required to pay for. Therefore she believes that adding the cost to their budget would never pass town meeting.
She explained that technology enhancements to the classroom were paid for in the past by parent driven fundraising. Murdock further clarified that those enhancements (like smart boards) were acquired over the course of years and cost much less than the 1:1 pilot.
Murdock turned over most of the student and technology related questions to teachers who were eager to respond.
Several teachers expressed their enthusiasm for iPad use in the classroom. They shared their experiences with the way students are engaged in learning through iPad use. Teachers were passionate about what they described as a “tool not a destination in itself”. Examples were shared of enhanced learning through how they already use ipads in the classroom.
They also described constraints of sharing the iPad cart between classrooms vs having access to use them throughout the day. (They clarified that the iPads wouldn’t be continually used, just more flexibly.)
Two teachers passionately defended the age appropriateness of the project.
Kate Lord, a 4th grade teacher, said that 4th graders are the “perfect” age for it. She explained that it’s the year students are asked to “own” their learning. She sees them as eager to follow the rules and show responsibility.
5th grade teacher, Dave Stubbart, talked about the importance of teaching kids “good digital citizenship” at a young age. He drew comparison to the 5th grade DARE program, designed to prepare them to handle future peer pressure to engage in dangerous behavior. Stubbart talked about a need to teach them how to behave with and handle technology. The goal is to help them avoid creating a personally damaging “digital footprint” as they get older.
Murdock defended use of iPads vs laptops by saying that students aren’t learning business studies or engineering. She said that the iPad is a better tool for educational purposes. Jean Tower, the district’s Director of Technology, explained that the iPad’s “instant on”, vs booting up, and the long battery life make them better for use on and off throughout the day.
Some parents continued to express confusion about lesson plans and how the iPads will be implemented on a daily basis. Murdock explained that a “day in the life” description is hard to convey because days vary.
Teachers indicated that if the pilot proceeds, there would be several parent nights along the way. Parents would continue to be informed as their involvement is necessary to make the pilot work.
The parent survey will be sent out on Monday. K-8 graders’ parents will receive a link to an online survey. 4th graders will also bring a paper home to parents.
(Photo posted to Flickr by flickingerbrad)