On Tuesday, February 2, 2016, we had the opportunity to present to our Barrington 220 School Board on the topic of our One to World program. This presentation allowed us to update the Board on the progress of the program, provide information about technology integration, and showcase four examples of classroom use of technology across the district.
The Barrington 220 One to World program is in its third implementation year. Year 1 (2013–14) included the BHS MacBook Air pilot. Year 2 (2014–15) was the first full implementation year for MacBook Air laptops at BHS and a large-scale iPad pilot with all of Grade 6. This year, BHS continues to use MacBook Air laptops, all our middle school program is fully implemented with iPads, and we have pre-launched iPads in select classrooms across Grades PK–5 in all elementary buildings.
Our District Technology Committee (DTC), comprised primarily of teacher representatives in all buildings and grade levels, meets monthly to discuss technology integration issues affecting teaching and learning in Barrington 220. One of our activities was to create a learning-focused definition of our One to World program.
The Barrington 220 One to World program:
- Allows students to participate as global citizens.
- Provides unlimited opportunities for real-world learning.
- Fosters creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking.
- Facilitates personalized learning through ownership, choice, and reflection.
- Allows for immediate and strategic feedback.
Also during the Board presentation, Joe Robinson, our Director of Instructional Technology, expertly provided an explanation to Board members of the many facets of instruction that a teacher must consider, plan, and design to create and deliver an effective technology-integrated lesson. Joe’s example used an extended explanation of a current activity being taught by Tim Kramer at BMS-Prairie. Tim Kramer’s students are using iPads to research and create infographics to support an upcoming debate about the military power behind ancient cultures.
School Board members were then able to virtually visit four Barrington 220 classrooms during the meeting. In Kim Gillengerten’s (Barbara Rose) Grade 3 class, students used iPads to work individually and in pairs to solve multi-part math problems using bar modeling. Jen Parisi’s Grade 4 class (Countryside) used iPads along with Schoology for an online discussion about literary characters. In Katy McCullough’s Grade 7 Social Studies class (BMS-Prairie), students used iPads to work on several aspects of a project while Katy facilitated a small-group discussion using a blended learning rotation model. Finally, in Caroline Milne’s BHS Human Biology class, students documented their learning in small groups using the built-in cameras on MacBook Air laptops to create movies [warning: sheep hearts dissected in this video]. Watch the videos here:
After the technology integration presentation, we presented a variety of options for Grades PK–5 to continue our One to World program next year. The Board asked us to move forward with the next steps of obtaining pricing and formal quotations for 1:1 iPads at Grades 1–5 and 2:1 iPads at Grades PK–K. Pending Board approval, we will soon begin to implement the next phases of One to World in Barrington 220.
Download and/or view a PDF of the entire 2-2-16 Board presentation.
The excellent work of the members of the DTC and the teachers involved in the PK–5 LaunchPad initiative was imperative in the formulation of this presentation and to the continued success of the One to World program. Thank you to all of the teachers, staff, and administrators on the DTC and involved with LaunchPad!
