Interactive+Instruction+Initiative+Overview+from+Bryan+Smyth

Prep School Faculty, Many of you have heard about the concept of "21st Century Education" being talked about in education circles. At its essence, a 21st Century model asserts that simply teaching a core curriculum the way American schools have been doing for over a century using is no longer sufficient. They have evidence to back it up. American schools are losing their status as the best in the world. Seventy-five percent (75%) of students who attend college are not adequately prepared to be college students. Employers constantly must retrain their employees because they have not learned the basics skills necessary to succeed. The end users of our product are not happy.

To adequately prepare this generation for college and the jobs they are likely to encounter when they enter the workforce we must teach a high-level liberal arts core curriculum AND teach thinking and life skills along side it. It's not that schools have ignored these goals before. Indeed all of you can point to lessons you have done that emphasize these skills. However, the key is that these thinking and life skills must be more frequently integrated into our curriculum, lessons, and classroom pedagogy. To be successful, students must leave Pisgah having mastered the 7 C's of the New College Prep.

Core Curriculum. Critical Thinking. Collaboration. Communication. Creativity. Cultural Competency. Character.


 * Technology is not a goal, it is a tool. ** **Other schools have launched "technology plans," typically uniform device 1:1 tablet/PC programs. They have focused more on the features of the one device and less on the pedagogy behind their use.** It is not surprising that the schools that have recently employed these are not terribly happy about the program. They look cool and make a nice marketing splash.


 * It is for this reason that Pisgah is not launching something entitled a "technology plan." Instead we are embarking on an Interactive Instruction Initiative, of which technology will be a portion **that will give you, the teachers, the tools you need to help students embody the portrait of the graduate. **This is a subtle, but important distinction to signify learning is or primary concern, not the computer.** We will talk more about what this means over time, but we have already seen the kinds of things that would fit into this plan being launched in the lower school--the culinary and inventions lab, the whole thinking curriculum (that teaches lessons on visible, critical, design and creative thinking),delivered through the enrichment teachers (Jan Clark and Sarah Fetz), Sarah Fetz's Think Tank classroom (this just was completed this week), and the American History Lab.


 * That being said, let's talk about what families may ask about: Technology at Pisgah for the Prep School **:

There are a number of reasons: 1) **Cost to families**. Many, many students already have a laptop. To force parents to purchase the tablet (or embed the cost in tuition as Wesleyan has done) when they already have one is a tremendous burden, especially for those with multiple children. 2) **Proliferation of Web-based Applications.** The reason to have one machine is to have a common image (or set of programs all of the student have) placed on the hard drive. Because of the proliferation of web-based applications (Moodle, Google Docs, Microsoft 365, Naviance, Evernote, Wikis, Blogs, conference call and online meeting programs) it is no longer needed to have everything on the machine. Specific programs needed for a class that are available online can be part of the requirements for the class, just like a textbook. 3) **Cost to Pisgah.** There a significant costs associated with maintaining machines that we own, but lease to families and/or having to provide help-desk service those machines in-house. We are outsourcing this so that we can avoid extreme tuition hikes to pay for such costs. 4) **It is the model that colleges use.** Colleges do not use common machines. Students bring what they need and use web-based programs or commonly available programs (Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat) to read and produce content. When colleges have tried this (e.g., Stanford tried iPads), the programs have failed because these students want to customize their tools and do not believe that one-size fits all. As such they reject the device. 5) **Device-specific programs run the risk of being about the machine, not about the learning.** In device specific schools, teachers are figuring out ways to use the machine, even for lower-order thinking tasks. Research shows this is detrimental to learning. We again want it to be a tool through which you have students produce content, collaborate with each other, learn to think critically, organize their work, etc., not become the central interface for the class.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18px;">For 2012-13 **
 * **<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18px;">We will be launching two initiatives: E-Books and an Learning Management System (LMS; Moodle). **
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18px;">E-Books will be optional for students, as they become available, to use instead of hard-cover books. The e-books have tremendous value to them--ability to highlight, link to the web, take and share notes, log how long a student has spent reading the page (so you can check up on them if necessary). The e-book can be accessed on a laptop, iPad, or phone (droid or iPhone) and the cloud syncs it all! However, publishers are just starting to offer this, so we do not expect 100% availability for textbooks.
 * <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18px;">An LMS is essentially a dynamic online syllabus. It allows teachers to house and modify the lessons for the class or individual students, embed online content, modify/supplement the e-book, some can perform grading functions so teachers don't have to grade by hand, and track progress toward the completion of the course. We will begin using Moodle because it is free and open source. As we go forward we may look at other options, but the e-book publishers prefer Moodle at this time.
 * **<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18px;">Laptops will be encouraged, particularly in 9-12. For those that use an e-book, they will effectively be required to be brought every day. **
 * **<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18px;">A very strong acceptable use policy will be put into place. **<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18px;">If students are using the technology in inappropriate ways, appropriate consequences will be employed.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18px;">For the future: **
 * 1) **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18px;">We are planning a "mandatory-all-students-must-bring-a-laptop-everyday-to-class" program in 7-12 beginning in 2013-14. **
 * 2) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18px;">In 6th grade, our technology curriculum will teach the students to use the programs/applications and the laptop responsibly, but not be used in the classroom on a daily basis. Instead, we will use other technology devices to deliver content such as through laptop carts or iPads, although the exact picture of this is still in development.
 * 3) **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18px;">The 7-12 program will be BYOL (or Bring your own laptop). **
 * 4) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18px;">We will offer parents the option to purchase a laptop or Tablet/PC through Pisgah (we are likely to offer 3 different computers). The benefit to this is that it will come with a protection plan and students will be able to get a swap out computer if theirs breaks right here at the school. The repair vendor will pick it up here at Pisgah and return it.
 * 5) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18px;">For students that do not choose one of these computers, we will publish the minimum requirements (e.g., i5 processor with at least 4MG RAM, 64 Bit, with Mircosoft Office - Student Edition etc.). However, if their machine breaks, they must take it to where they purchased it, to the manufacturer or a third party repair center. We may have a limited amount of rental machines if they need one.
 * 6) **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18px;">Macs will be allowed. However, our teachers are on a PC environment. The student is ultimately responsible for the laptop being ready for school. If, for whatever reason, there is a problem with the laptop conforming to the needs of the class, it is the student's responsibility to become compliant with those requirements. **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18px;">It will be the student's responsibility to be sure that proper windows formats are transmitted to teachers. There may be some programs (e.g., MS One Note) that do not work well or at all with Macs. Remember that we have Microsoft Office as a requirement, which is available for Macs.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18px;">Why are we doing this, rather than going device specific (i.e., making them all buy the same machine)? **

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18px;">1) **Infrastructure.** Over the past 18 months, we've been planning on moving in a laptop direction. We've made upgrades to our wireless network. We've just signed an agreement with Leapfrog to update our server environment and be the first line of defense for teacher-computer troubleshooting needs. However, there is still much work to do to be sure our firewalls and wireless network can handle the increased traffic. We will be working with Leapfrog over the next year to put the necessary infrastructure improvements in place to be able to handle 500 users at one time on the East Campus. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18px;">2) **Time for teachers to develop curriculum and lessons.** We all recognize that it will take time for you to orient your lessons to using the web-based applications (Moodle and e-books in the short term and web-based note taking applications in the long term). <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18px;">3) **Time for parents to plan their computer purchases.** Giving parents time to financially plan for purchases over the next 18 months is to be sure not to burden families without the means to purchase a laptop at a moment's notice.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18px;">Why are we not launching this initiative this coming August? **