Burlington High School, which gives every student an iPad to keep until graduation, has become a poster child for tech giant Apple.
The company will present staff and students with the Apple Distinguished School award on March 13 and laud the school's efforts to transform classroom learning through the company's technology on its website.
"It's nice for the staff and students to be recognized," Principal Mark Sullivan said yesterday. "This is our second full year using the iPad, and I think the biggest measure of success is that it's helped our kids become more creative and engaged in their classrooms."
Using different apps, students in psychology class, for example, are able to see a 3-D image showing each part of the human brain on their iPads, while students in anatomy class are able to see an image of a cat's anatomy. Teachers post homework on their blogs, and students, who have the option of buying the iPad at market price when they graduate, are able to compile curated portfolios of their writing or artwork that they can present to colleges or to employers in the future.
Dylan Smith, a 16-year-old junior, writes papers on his iPad, while Adriana Berardi, one of his classmates, takes notes on it.
"There is game-playing, but people are pretty disciplined with them," Smith said. "I honestly thought a lot of the teachers would not know how to use them, but it's worked out."
To help anyone who has a problem, the high school has designated its own version of Apple's "Genius Bar," staffed by a teacher and a handful of students each period, as part of a course for which they earn credit.
In all, more than 2,000 Burlington students have iPads at their disposal. In addition to high schoolers, there's one for every student in grades six through eight at Marshall Simonds Middle School; one first grade class in each of the town's four elementary schools; and every fourth and fifth grader at Pine Glen Elementary School, said Assistant Superintendent Patrick Larkin.
Even though elementary and middle school students can't take the devices home, the virtual blackboards are helping first-graders spell out words and increase their journal writing output, Larkin said, while older students are becoming better organized through apps like Explain Everything, Evernote and Genius Scan.
"We're supposed to be preparation for the real world, so what's going on in here should look like the real world," Larkin said. "We're getting our kids comfortable with resources they can use, no matter what device they're on. That's been a big focus for us."
Burlington schools pay for the iPads over a three-year period through an Apple equity lease program, he said, and their goal is to have one for every student in the district within two years. To date, Apple has sold more than 4.5 million iPads to U.S. schools.
Students are currently using the iPad 2, but school officials may invest in updated IPad models or iPad Mini, Larkin said.
"The thing we need to be clear on is we do have to monitor kids' screen time when they have their face in a device," Larkin said, adding the school district holds monthly "parent technology nights" to address any concerns parents may have over excessive technology use. "Obviously we still want to teach the social skills we've always taught."
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