Page 40 - School Planning & Management, May 2017

TECHNOLOGY MAKING SCHOOL NEW AGAIN
environment as one based on the four C’s of 21st-century learning,” says Lewis.
What are the four C’s?
“Our four C’s are collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking. These are the main components of an active learning environment. When they come together, you can have an active, dynamic, flexible learning environment.”
Students asked for different lighting, too. Many students reported suffering from headaches when working under traditional fluorescent lighting.
Students also wanted more comfortable seats. Current research notes that students comfortable in their chairs do better in class. Several manufacturers now offer adjustable chairs for students of all sizes and builds.
In addition, students can move com- fortably while sitting in today’s classroom seating. As students move-side-to side and front-to-back, the chair’s components will bend and follow.
Technology That Alters Teaching
Active learning environments don’t only change the way students learn, they give teachers new tools.
Within the past year, Hoover High School, in Des Moines, Iowa, received a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) grant to rethink what classrooms look like and to create innova- tive learning spaces.
“We are implementing Epson Britelink projectors in every classroom in the school district, about 2,500 projectors in all,” says Dan Warren, director of technology opera- tions, central stores and printing services for Des Moines Public Schools.
The district’s Britelink facilities include classrooms outfitted with a STEM Grant from the Governor’s STEM Advisory Coun- cil. “We started out by designing a STEM classroom at one of our high schools,” Warren says. “We created several collabo- ration areas — one area where one student can study and others where three to five students can collaborate. We implemented
Collaborative learning. The digital collaboration that is going on in K-12 classrooms is indica-
tive of the way the workplace is shifting to more remote access of information and global working relationships that operate with ease. Along with easy sharing of information, K-12 students today can access research in ways that were unheard of when their parents were in school. Electronic academic databases provide all of the information a student needs to research an assignment or write a term paper, but with much less of the manpower needed.
projectors there.
Warren says the district started out by
purchasing technology with grant funds but couldn’t sustain that model — some- times grants don’t come through. When that happened, the district moved to a centralized approach to funding.
“We’re not a one-to-one technology district, but I would say that we are a modi- fied one-to-one district. We have devices available for students while at school — they can’t take those devices home. Some students bring their own devices.
“We try to recommend brands so that we have the same devices as much as possible.
“We are working toward a model where we replace devices every four years, which is a leasing model.”
At the same time, Warren is reviewing district RFPs for a Learning Management System (LMS), which he plans to begin implementing in phases starting in the fall of this year.
“An LMS is an online portal,” Warren says. “Teachers and students log on. Teach- ers can assign projects. Students work online in an LMS, and then submit their work to their instructors.”
What does Warren ultimately expect from all these classroom technologies and redesigned classrooms? “It is all about per- sonalized learning,” he says. “The idea is to take classroom learning from a teacher- based learning environment to a student- based learning environment — where students control the learning. We refer to the end-product as a ‘school of rigor.’
In the end, student-based learning translates into project-based learning cre- ated and managed by the students them- selves. Experience suggests that technology such as projectors and learning manage- ment systems have proven key to the success of project-based learning — the next generation’s vastly improved method of teaching and learning. SPM
40 SCHOOL PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / MAY 2017
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