iPods, cameras replacing pen, paper

Students are playing math games on iPod touches and reading electronic books instead of hard copies. Teachers are being recorded on cameras. And principals are attending conferences without leaving their offices.

Albemarle County schools are using new technology this year in an effort to better interest and excite students.

“We’ve watched many videos where the instructor’s not engaging,” said Luvelle Brown, the school division’s chief information officer. “The students didn’t have a clue what was going on.”

School division leaders are recording teachers and posting the videos on an internal Web site this year, which they hope will encourage discussions about what teachers are doing right and wrong.

And students are being interviewed, to gauge whether they’re learning or are bored.

“We need to know that,” Brown said. “We’re confronting the brutal facts.”

Using the iPhone 3GS and other video recording devices, administrators and fellow teachers are dropping in on classes for a few minutes at a time for teacher appraisals, and video recordings are posted online.

Administrators will make some of the videos available to all teachers, and other videos will be accessible only to a select few.

The Web videos are one of several new technological upgrades the school division is showcasing.

“Technology is the way of the future,” said Monticello High School’s new principal, Catherine Worley, adding that educators would “hamper our students” if they forced students to use only paper and pencils.

The division is experimenting with e-books, for example, which have the advantage of being portable and often have more up-to-date information than traditional textbooks, plus they often contain links to related online information.

Albemarle schools are receiving between 800 and 1,000 free iPod touches as part of a pilot program, according to Brown, because the school division purchased new notebook computers from Apple.

Ida Mae Craddock, a ninth grade English teacher at Monticello, said students quickly became fond of the devices, partially because they allow students to access information online quickly. Craddock, who has been teaching for 10 years, says that the iPod touches also allow her students to have access to a multitude of primary sources online and up-to-date information.

“Textbooks are only accurate as of print date, which could have been five years ago,” Craddock said, adding that students’ ability to send papers to classmates using iPod touches makes it easier for them to edit each others’ work.

The school division doesn’t have firm estimates on how much money will be spent on the new technological devices or how much money could be saved from improved efficiencies. However, Brown said the division has a budget of up to $500,000 for the technological upgrades and is also trying to get federal stimulus funds to help cover costs.

“We spend [money] each year on replacing textbooks that go out of date,” Brown said, noting that getting more information online, instead of using printed textbooks, could reduce spending.

The division also plans to install video conference equipment in all of the county’s schools, Brown said, which allows educators to communicate with multiple people from virtually anywhere in the world and be able to see them on a monitor.

Monticello is hoping to schedule a video conference with the county’s sister city in Italy, for example.

As for future plans, Brown said he suspects students will eventually have school e-mail addresses and grading books will be made available online for students and their parents.

Craddock said she thinks having online grading books would be beneficial.

“Grades shouldn’t be mysterious,” Craddock said, adding that teachers need to collaborate with parents as much as possible, to ensure students are learning.

Administrators hope modern technology and creative approaches to teaching will improve student engagement.

The division has seen recent gains in academic achievement, meeting all 29 federal benchmarks for Adequate Yearly Progress in 2008-09 and 23 of 25 schools making AYP, up from only 20 schools having made AYP the prior year.

The county’s 26th school is a charter school that had too few students to be considered for AYP.