Middle School Expands Tablet Program

Middle School Director Steve Hopkins recently announce that after a very successful pilot program in our sixth grade this year, the One-to-One Tablet Computer Program will be expanded to the entire middle school next year.

Tablet computers are laptops with additional features, such as a pressure-sensitive screen and a stylus, which allow the user to write or draw directly on the screen – with all of the advantages of working with electronic files, including duplicating, sharing, editing, and publishing. The one-to-one student to computer ratio promotes fluency with technology, engagement and creativity, and the degree to which learning can be monitored and understood by both teachers and students. The use of tablet computers, in particular, promotes a very natural implementation of technology, one where the benefits of computers extend to the sciences, languages, arts – domains that are underserved without a writing utensil. Writing Chinese characters or complex chemical formulas, for example, are possible with the use of a stylus.

This year the sixth grade utilized a computer program called Microsoft OneNote, providing each student an electronic notebook of class materials for each class, shared with teacher and synced to the server. Not only did this system help sixth graders to be better organized, but also more productive and more creative. They also use a program called DyKnow for displaying student work, sharing screens, and monitoring student computers. In science, students are using an electronic textbook that includes live links to an amazing array of resources.

Learn more about more about the benefits of this program through the eyes of our teachers here.