Ashe Mountain Times

Once upon a time, students took their places in a classroom and teachers gave instruction. Learning happened as the youngsters kept pace with their instructors.

Generations have changed, and ways to learn have changed along with them. Generation Z, also known as the Internet Generation and Generation Text, is already impacting the world with its thirst for fingertip knowledge and instant mobile communication.

In the waves of evolving technology, schools are racing to keep pace — and the attention of their students.

“We have to adapt for these kids,” said Christy Rivers, an English teacher at Ashe County High.

In Rivers' honors English class for seniors, traditional works of literature are studied. But the means for studying them could involve an application from an iPad, a presentation to the class using such modern-day methods as a Jerry Springer-style talk show, or discussion through Edmodo, a free social network for teachers and students.

Writing a paper isn't out of the question, either. But Rivers, Generation Y herself, strives for a goal common to teachers since the beginning of time: student engagement.

“We have to keep up with them,” Rivers said. “We can't teach using 19th century or even 20th century skills, or teaching techniques, because that does not relate to them. It doesn't connect with our students.

“We're sending them out into the world, a 21st century world, and they've got to keep up. So we can't be teaching them using these antiquated types of teaching techniques. I feel like education right now, it is trying to keep up with our kids. And it's really working. I feel like we're catching them.”

Even if not as fast as educators would prefer.

“The key is, we need to be teaching the way kids learn,” said Jason Krider, principal at Ashe County High. “Standing in front of the classroom talking for 90 minutes is not the way they learn.”

Using technology as one means of keeping students engaged while in the classroom is a way students learn.

Ashe County Schools have benefitted greatly from donations or appropriations that have put iPad and Netbook carts into the schools. Each cart has 25, and each of the five schools has at least one cart each of iPads and Netbooks.

“We tend to think in terms of how we need to teach, but we need to see how students learn,” said Amy Walker, director of technology for ACS.

“They connect with them,” Walker said of the iPads and Netbooks. “It's their world. They don't know a time without cell phones. Technology is their world. We have to use it to our benefit.”

Provided it is there.

The carts at the five schools total 475 devices, either iPads, Netbooks or laptops. Students number approximately 3,100. The high school has wireless infrastructure to support a one-to-one program, but the cost of such a project is $1.2 million, plus $300,000 annually to the budget, said Travis Reeves, superintendent of Ashe County Schools.

Reeves also said sustainability of the one-to-one project is an integral part of the equation.

“Our Board of Education has established the fact that we want all students to be college or career ready when they graduate Ashe County High School, and that means they must be proficient using technology in many different arenas,” Reeves said. “Because Ashe County is rural, we feel that technology bridges the gap for our students and allows them to be globally competitive with other students across the state, nation and world.”

Reeves said getting it right when moving forward, and not just moving forward, is the only goal.

“This is why we have piloted this program this school year at the high school,” Reeves said. “We felt it was important to get teacher volunteers to pilot various equipment with our students and then share their positive/negative experiences with our tech department/teachers before we try to do anything on a whole scale.”

 

 

Flexible techniques

 

When Rivers decided her classes would move forward with technology integrated, she knew two kinds of students would be present. She planned for both.

Josiah Tucker of her senior honors English class would fit into one category, that which prefers traditional pen and paper. Jenny Wait would fit into the other, utilizing new technology devices at every opportunity.

Rivers said her classes have options when it comes to doing work utilizing iPads and computers.

“It's not a ‘You must adhere to my technology' kind of thing,” Rivers said. “It's not like that. They always have the assignment before they leave, and they always have the option of writing it.”

Wait got a taste of iPads in Rivers' English 3 class last year.

“It was pretty foreign at the start,” Wait said. “It was a novelty, but it wore off and became a tool more than a toy.”

And that transpired in a matter of a few days the first week.

Tucker said he typically chooses to write out his work.

“I'm more hands on, more kinesthetic,” he said.

But he says he understands his preferred method of hands-on learning can mesh well with utilizing the iPads available in class.

Even without iPads, Rivers would have her class sign up for an account on Edmodo. The social site has a foundation in the ever-popular Facebook, but students' messages remain focused on class. Teachers can use a number of applications in Edmodo, including testing, and parents can have an account that keeps them in contact with their children's assignments and progress.

“This was actually implemented before I had the iPads,” Rivers said. “I've now been using it for up to maybe two full years. In the past, I would just have my students sign up for accounts, and we would go to the computer lab and use it during class. And they would also use it outside of class at home, at the library, wherever they could find Internet. It's a free program, it is absolutely wonderful, and it's just enhanced with the iPads really.”

 

 

Value education

 

Rivers, as best she can, stays up to date with the “latest and greatest” when it comes to new technology and applications.

“I am one of those people that if there's a new technology and it is efficient to me personally then I lap it up. I love learning about it,” Rivers said.

She doesn't need paper and pen for to do lists, organization, grocery lists or bookkeeping. And once rolling along in her personal life, she's aware of how to adapt it to the classroom.

“I like to keep my finger on the pulse of what is going on in society,” Rivers said. “And when you see that kids are attached to their cell phones, and they have all these little gadgets and gizmos and things, they find it important. And they find it useful. So being able to keep up with them in my classroom is incredibly valuable to me.

“I feel like if I don't use what they're using in their personal life in my classroom, and they don't find ways to apply that outside of the classroom, then I haven't really done my job.”

“She's very innovative and in tune with the teaching tools we have today,” Krider said. “I just see them being able to be more creative in the classroom. She's got a full-time dedicated website to her class. It's a 24-hour learning process. Information is always available. Students are always connected.”

 

 

Tech 30

 

Ashe County High's teachers regularly share periods of instruction with colleagues. The sessions are called Tech 30, and the time is for 30 minutes in the media center. Teachers attend, if they choose, during their planning period.

Rivers directed a session in January that breezed through the highlights of what she's doing in her classroom using the iPads, spending a good deal of time highlighting Edmodo. Reeves was among those taking notes.

Of particular interest was the engagement by students, and Rivers' ability to utilize Edmodo in testing. Her time grading work is dramatically reduced, often more than cut in half. Edmodo also allows notifications from student to teacher and teacher to student, assignments and calendar.

Depending on the method of testing in Edmodo (for example, multiple choice or fill in the blank), student, teacher and parent can know the score instantly.

“There is visual learning, auditory learning, and kinesthetic learners, those are the three main ones,” Rivers said. “There are some who like to learn by just going out and doing. We're finding that this generation has been shifting. They would rather not learn by a teacher standing in front of the classroom and lecturing and soaking up knowledge. They would rather learn by going out and doing themselves.

“So (using technology) is kind of a mix of all three. They learn from listening to whatever is out there, and by going out and actually teaching themselves, they are learning kinesthetically by actually having a hands-on approach to learning. I think that's the biggest shift that has changed in education.”

 

 

Student grades

 

Administrators in Ashe say the sample size is too small for factual data on student scores related to the utilization of mobile technology devices.

“It's too early to tell if there's a difference in test scores,” Walker said. “It's hard to measure. We'll all be curious to see if there's a higher level of learning.”

Krider said data in other counties that are already in the one to one program have seen improved graduation rates, and improved rates against drop outs. Of graduates or test scores, he said the desire is easy.

“Graduates, absolutely,” Krider said. “Testing, the way we test, is antiquated.”

And Rivers does have a measuring stick.

“As far as engagement of my students, it has gotten so much better,” Rivers said. “It skyrockets when you get a device in their hands. And its not that they're engaged in things that are not on task. You think you give a kid an iPad in a classroom, and they'll go look at trucks, or hunting stuff, or go shopping online, that kind of thing. And it really hasn't been like that.

“There is a few cases where a student is off task and I guided him gently back to the task at hand. Through the most part, they are on task. They enjoy doing the assignments more because there's a device, and its' not like the assignment is any different, they're still writing things down. But, just the act of typing it instead of handwriting it, they love it. And I really don't have trouble keeping them on task.”

And she's able to grade students just as she has in the past — on knowledge of the subject.

“I feel like the curriculum hasn't changed. What I teach them hasn't changed,” Rivers said. “I still teach ‘Beowulf' like I did without the iPads. I still teach the “Canterbury Tales.” I still teach the “Crucible.” It's just the means in which I go about doing activities that support those texts, that has changed.

“For example, instead of having them draw a picture on a piece of paper indicating a scene that we just read, I'll have them doodle it on the Doodle Buddy app on the iPad. Instead of having them write down questions the night before to discuss the next day, I'll have them go on Edmodo and actually discuss it with their classmates before coming to class the next day. Its easier for me, they enjoy it more, so all around I feel it's a better fit for my classroom.”

 

 

Future is now

 

Each of Ashe's five schools has a Smart Board in every classroom, from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade.

“This is not the norm across the state and we should feel very fortunate to have these resources in the hands of our teachers and students,” Reeves said. “Funding this project has been a collaborative effort between the school system, grants, county commissioners, and local businesses. Our teachers are very proficient at using Smart Board technology with their students and many teachers encourage and allow students to use the Smart Boards, especially at the elementary level.”

At each school, a media/technology committee meets to address school needs. Reeves said even at schools that have implemented one to one programs, unknowns still exist.

Of Ashe's High Country neighbors, one to one programs are under way in Watauga and Wilkes counties. Krider said he believes Alleghany started this year.

“In our region, we're behind because most everybody in our region is doing a one to one,” Krider said. “Having said that, our teachers do an excellent job utilizing what we do have. As far as technology instruction, we're one of the leaders. From technology learning on the students' end, we're not the leader.

“It's our goal to become a one to one high school. Of course, funding is playing the biggest role in preventing that right now. You're looking at more than a million dollars to start.”

And no matter the future for how Ashe implements technology, the school system is already feeling the effects.

“The main challenge is that technology changes so quickly, we realize that it is very hard to keep pace,” Reeves said. “Our students are skilled at using technology and often know more about technology than we do. There are policy issues that come from expanded use of technology in our schools. We are reviewing our acceptable use policy as well as other electronic policies.

“The use of the Internet has become the norm in most classrooms and we have to continuously update our Internet filters, our wireless infrastructure and many other behind the scene issues that most people do not think about when dealing with technology.”

But no matter how far technology progresses, it is unlikely any future generation will see the elimination of the teacher in the classroom.

“Those have not taken my place at all,” Rivers said. “The iPads are not taking the place of books. They are simply an additional tool in my classroom. They are something to support what I already do and something to support what the students are already supposed to learn. And it's not like we use them every single day the entire class. It's little bits here, little bits there. If I need them to pull them open to research something, they're there.

“I feel like we do need them because they are such engaging tools for the students. To get them through to graduate, you need for them to be engaged.”

 

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Digital learning

 

Following are the distribution of carts of computer devices at each of the Ashe County public schools. Each cart numbers 25 devices.

 

Schools                 iPad carts     Netbook carts

Ashe County High                3            3

Ashe County Middle              1            2

Blue Ridge Elem.                  2            2

Mountain View Elem.           1            2

Westwood Elem.                  1            0*

Westwood has 2 full-size laptop carts.

 

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Carting success

 

Following are the teachers and their subjects utilizing either iPads or Netbooks at Ashe County High School:

 

iPad cart, Rachel Shepherd, Social Studies

iPad cart, Christy Rivers, English

iPad cart, Jill Starling, Exceptional Children

Netbook cart, Sarah Tugman, Science

Netbook cart, Scott Grubb, Physical Education

Netbook cart, available for checkout