Academic News Changing the Landscape of Education
Innovations in the Spirit of St. John Baptist de La Salle The Patron Saint of Teachers, St. John Baptist de La Salle, pioneered numerous educational innovations. Nearly 300 years after his death, that same innovative spirit guides the school’s mission. St. John Baptist de La Salle would have been right at home in the classrooms and hallways of De La Salle Collegiate.
Technology as a Tool for Learning
While DLS teachers have incorporated technology into their classroom teaching for more than a decade, from websites to smartboards, the past school year marked the introduction of Chromebooks and the use of “Google Apps” for education. According to DLS Principal Mr. Patrick Adams, there is significant research that frequent and meaningful feedback between students and teachers is how kids learn.
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“Students are using the Chromebooks to access informational texts, either in the classroom setting or in their unscheduled time in what we call the Digital Resource Center (DRC), formerly ‘the Library.’ Students read and analyze various texts, and prepare documents in the cloud, as a Google document. The students then share those documents, and teachers are able to give each student more frequent feedback.” There are now three classroom sets of Chromebooks used in the Freshmen English classes and in the Freshmen Seminar classes.
Freshmen use the tablets for research, extensive writing practice, and for learning Google Apps. These Chromebooks are in addition to the classroom set available in the DRC for individual checkout or for a full class’s use right in the DRC. Mr. Adams says, “A full class can be in the middle of the DRC, at fourman tables, using the Chromebooks, while another 50 students can be on the perimeter using one of the desktop computers.” “We’re looking to create that feedback loop,” says Mr. Adams. “Our students are comfortable with the digital world, and we’re providing access.” The school plans to have a tablet in every freshman’s hands in the 2014-2015 school year, says Mr. Adams, with the goal of having a tablet computer for all students by the 2017-2018 school year. Mr. Adams says, “We have a clear vision and plan to introduce technology into the curriculum as a tool. Just as we methodically rolled out the Smart Boards, over a two-three year period of time, we are methodically training teachers to incorporate technology into their lessons.” But this is not the “tablet in every locker” philosophy. Mr. Adams says, “One of the many mistakes in implementing One-toOne initiatives is trying to do it all at
