What’s shiny and sleek and on backorder all over the world?
What’s shiny and sleek and on backorder all over the world?
High School seniors in Watsonville have the answer – literally.
The Monte Vista Christian School – which lies nestled in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains and has 138 Gilroy students, 75 Morgan Hill students and 108 Hollister students – has implemented iPad and iPad2 technology in the classroom.
The school incorporated iPads in April 2010, beginning with 120 units for four classrooms. They now have 480 iPads, including 16 classroom sets in the high school and middle school and 68 individual units that are being used by high school history students in a preliminary trial.
Headmaster Steve Sharp said MVCS plans to issue each incoming freshman with an iPad2 next fall. Students will carry them from class to class during the day and take the items home in the evenings to do their homework.
Since MVCS began renting its campus out to groups and conference retreats last summer, Nelson said administration was able to designate the extra funds towards the new-fangled classroom treasures.
“I was stoked,” said Hayley Peterson on when she learned the latest and trendiest technology from Apple was coming to her classroom.
The 15-year-old sophomore who lives in Gilroy and studies French said one of her favorite resources on the iPad2 is an application that assists her with correct pronunciation.
“You can hear yourself say it, and then hear the correct pronunciation and see what you’re doing wrong,” she said.
Aviona Guaracha, a 15-year-old sophomore from Hollister who is taking AP History, said having educational texts available in a handy digitized format is not only quicker and more efficient, but has saved her from lugging around heavy books.
“I do my study guides on there really quick,” she said. “I enjoy history. It works out perfectly.”
Both said they were huge fans of an application called Pages, which has multiple note taking tools and can be accessed from other outlets such as e-mail and iPods.
Another application called Soundpaper which allows students to type notes while recording a teacher’s lecture and email the notes home is also wildly popular.
“It’s been almost a year since we brought in the iPad 1,” Sharp said. “Now (students and teachers) are over the wow factor and they’re actually using the tool.”
Of course, he noted, there is that temptation dip into the countless applications and web access made available by the magical handheld device, but for the most part problems have been minimal.
“Most students focus on the academic side, but there’s always going be a few that aren’t respectful,” Peterson said.
However a majority plays by the rules, she said, and not having the protective screen of a laptop discourages attention-distracting activities.
“If you go on something you shouldn’t be on, you can kind of tell,” she said.
Sharp credits iPads with boosting the speed and efficiency of quizzes, as tests can be automatically graded and downloaded into the teacher’s grade book.
“I feel this is the future,” he said, adding the school has doing away with every computer lab, save for the ones designated for working with Photoshop and creating movies.
“We’re looking at going 90 percent paperless with this.”
