Welcome to the International School of Prague iPad Pilot Program. The goal of this blog is to keep a ongoing conversation on how the iPad can enhance student learning and support our Mobile Technology Program. We currently have been piloting the iPads since 2010 and are continuing to do so in different sections of the school. After a successful pilot with a small group of PreK-2 teachers, we have adopted a program where each Prek to Grade 2 class are given iPads and a shared laptop cart to support student learning. Next year we will be adding more iPad to each classroom. We also have been piloting the iPad in the Middle and Upper School. Focusing on the US Science, Math and MS PE Departments. This spring we will expand our pilot with the Learning Specialist, Reading Specialist and ESL teachers in the Elementary School. With this next pilot group we are looking to see how this tool can support student and teacher learning while supporting the Learning Specialist, Reading Specialist and ESL programs.
Why these Pilots? We feel when bringing in a new technology teachers need to time and opportunities to play around and explore the use of the tools on a small scale. Through this process they have the ability to explore and see how these tools can support student learning. Our program is structured around the idea of giving an iPad or a few iPads to a small group of teachers to test out, this supported by sectional IT Specialist mentoring and by regular blog posts reflecting their learning. After a period of time we meet with the teachers and explore the next steps in supporting the iPad. This driven by the teachers experience and feedback.
Academic Year 2011-2012
This year we are continuing with a pilot program in our Middle and Upper School through the facilitation of our two (Lyle and Patrick) IT Specialist in both the MS and US. The goal is to see what role iPads can play in supporting student learning, in the context of our Petr Mares 1 to 1 laptop program. We have now a set of 5 iPad’s being used by the Math and Science department. In the Middle School we are making available a few iPads, and so far the interest has been limited as our Petr Mares 1 to 1 laptop program and laptops seem at this time from faculty feedback to provide the tools and learning opportunities to ensure an authentic learning experience. The Middle School PE department is one area that has used the iPad as an effect teaching tool, see blog post in the Middle School section.
Academic year 2010-2011
We are three teachers from PreK4, Grade 1 and Grade 2, and we are about to begin a small scale pilot with one iPad donated by Apple for three months. The school is on hold in purchasing more iPads as a new version with more advanced features (camera on both sides, lighter, and faster) is due to be released at the end of February. The long term goal is for iPads to replace the eMacs in the Early Years classrooms as learning centers to support individual and small group learning. We are going to maintain this blog reflecting on our learning and thoughts on the iPad in the classroom and you will all be able to follow these and share our comments.
The pilot has been successfully completed in the Elementary School. A special thank you to John Simon, Ondrej , Kerry, Sarah and James for their work and collaboration. This academic year we have introduced 25 iPad for the Grades PreK3-Grade 2 homerooms, in tandem with our current Elementary School Petr Mares Laptop Cart Program. The goal is for the class teachers to work for a full year with these, and from there we hope to expand the use of iPads focusing on the Learning Support and EAL teachers for the next expansion. We also this year introduced 2 iPads into our Library.
