IT @ ISM Tech Think Blog

Here’s a quick update on some planned upgrades for this year and next here at ISM.

If you’re wondering what to expect with regards to hardware setup, improvements, changes or other planned IT initiatives, read on and you will hopefully find answers to some of your questions.

One obvious recent priority has been to find someone to replace Dimax, who left us in February for new (and greener?) pastures. This will hopefully be resolved shortly. In the meantime, please bear with us as we try to fill his shoes.

The plan is to have HS and MS classrooms and hallways equipped with wireless access over the long break and ready for use at the beginning of next school year, hopefully also including parts of ES. Students and teachers will then be able to bring their own laptops to school and use anywhere within the wireless zones (which will be most of the school). This brings up the very significant question of how classroom routines will be affected by a students suddenly having access to the Internet during any class. Do you allow make use of this resource during class discussions? Why (not)? I will explore this question further in a separate post.

Projectors will be installed in all classrooms throughout HS, MS and down throughout most of ES, including ESL, LS and specialist teachers.

We are getting a number of laptop carts to use in upper ES classes, to support their keyboarding program and learn how best to use laptops in our classrooms. Why just this limited group? Research indicates that merely plonking a laptop in front of a student with little or no guidance and planning does little to improve their learning. Rather, results follow from careful planning, and trial and error over time. It may take years before teachers and students develop the skill set to really benefit from the presence of laptops in the classroom. By targeting a limited subset of our student population and giving them considerable exposure to technology in the classroom over time, we give them the chance to develop the required skills and we can learn from this experience before deciding how best to expand the program.

We are also planning to increase My Documents storage space and provide much more space for uploading files to the SharePoint portal. SharePoint training and ongoing support for teachers will be a priority.

Finally, an online version of the ES digital portfolio is under development, which will significantly simplify this process, freeing up ES class time for more productive use of IT.

Image: http://flickr.com/photos/hosha/180811686/ (Creative Commons license)