Rocky Hill School is pleased to announce that, beginning in the fall of 2012, it will implement a 1:1 iPad program in the Middle School. Every student and teacher will have an iPad for use at school and home.  This will be one of the only programs of its kind in Rhode Island.   

 

The devices will be fully personalized to each student and will be provided by the school.  The 1:1 iPad program provides a platform for digital textbooks and tools to help students organize their coursework, while offering anytime/anywhere note taking and document access.  Students and teachers will be able to easily share information and collaborate on projects using digital drop boxes and cloud computing. 

 

The software for the iPad is what makes all the difference.  With an application for seemingly every subject, students and teachers will have direct access to an endless array of educational resources. 

 

Consider the following scenario: An eighth grade science student opens iBooks on his iPad and navigates to a reading assignment his teacher has created using the iBooks Author app. He reads the text on the water cycle and uses the built-in highlighter on vocabulary words and key concepts.  The teacher has embedded an interactive video that animates the entire evapotranspiration cycle. He inserts a note on that page with a two-sentence summary of the cycle and then finishes reading the chapter.  As he works, the iBooks app is creating a study guide, which incorporates his bookmarks, highlights and notes. 

 

Director of Technology Tom Adams sees the iPad as the ideal device for a middle school learner.  “Students these days have technology coursing through their veins,” Adams said.  “The use of iPads, which are highly portable and practical, will engage students on a level with which they are familiar and comfortable.”  

 

The organizational benefits of iPads cannot be overlooked. Middle School students, perhaps for the first time, are moving between classrooms and juggling homework and co-curricular activities.  With the iPad, active middle school students will have everything needed to succeed in the classroom at their fingertips.     

 

“As a school, we pride ourselves on being on the cutting edge of technology,” said new Head of School Jonathan M. Schoenwald, Ph.D.  “Having already implemented iPads in the lower school and laptop computers in the upper school, this 1:1 middle school iPad program is a natural progression for us.  The educational benefits are limitless, and we know our teachers and students will plot new, creative, and innovative learning opportunities with this remarkably flexible device.”  

 

Rocky Hill’s history of integrating technology and learning began in 1996 when they introduced the upper school laptop program.  Since then SMART boards, tablets, iPads and innovative software have rounded out the list of technological enhancements inside the classroom.