HCA 1-1 TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE UPDATE February 2013  

Over the next two years, HCA plans to introduce a 1-to-1 technology initiative in our upper school to empower teachers and students to integrate technology into the learning process in a way that emphasizes the priorities of the 21st Century education model - Creativity, Critical Thinking, Collaboration, and Communication - while providing them with insight into the spiritual and ethical issues to be confronted in the use of such technology.    

“Technology is the creative activity of using tools  to transform God’s creation for practical purposes.”  

Tim Challies in The Next Story: Life and Faith After the Digital Explosion    There are two primary motivations behind this initiative:  ● Philosophical - The development and use of 21st Century skills is consistent with

our role as “image bearers of God” as we demonstrate creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication in a Christ-centered focus.  

● Pedagogical - The 21st Century workplace demands that we train our students to be excellent in these skills as we develop their expertise in the content areas; our worldview demands that we equip them to integrate their faith with the use of these technological tools.  

 Each of the “4 C’s” can be found in our call to be an expression of the image of God. Paul’s admonition to be “renewed in our minds” (Rom 12:1) speaks of critical thinking; the call to “subdue the earth” involves creatively using the resources God provides to benefit man (sand becomes a silicon chip which become an iPhone!); the “one anothers” and Paul’s illustration of giftedness in the body in I Corinthians 12 points to collaboration. Even in the creation of man we see collaboration within the Trinity … “and let us make man in our own image”; and the very existence of God’s Word, both the written Word and the Living Word, is God’s communication of eternal truth with His creation.    HCA has already begun to invest significantly in this initiative. In the summer of 2012 we purchased MacBooks and iPads for all of our teachers to provide them with the necessary tools to begin implementing this approach. We have subscribed to the “staff before stuff” mantra, investing in a robust, comprehensive, ongoing professional development initiative to provide our teachers with the competence and confidence to successfully integrate technology in an effective way. This requires more than just training them to be able to use Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. It also involves helping the existing technology to help the student develop 21st Century skills. Students will become more than passive receptors of information; they will be taught to effectively interact with the information in creative and critical ways. Teachers will be encouraged to develop project-based lessons to enhance their existing curriculum, including a high school research program that will

 

 

provide a structure to allow students to perform digital research in four different subject areas throughout their high school experience. An important part of this emphasis was the hiring of an Emergent Technologies Librarian, Anthony Brenchley, who will work with the classroom teachers on the research initiative and with the overall technology integration.    We have also begun investing in the infrastructure that it will take to fully implement a 1-1 initiative. We are working to provide increased bandwidth into both buildings. We are upgrading the wireless infrastructure within the building itself, installing new, state-of-the-art commercial grade access points to be able to handle the increased wireless traffic as more and more of our applications are making their way to “the cloud.” I am especially excited about the new content filtering solution we are implementing from a company called Lightspeed Systems. This product will provide three critical functions for the 1-1 initiative at the west campus:    A robust “anywhere” content filtering solution - We currently have the ability to filter content for any devices that connect to our internal wireless network. However, some families have expressed a concern about filtering of 1-1 devices when they leave our network, when they are a the local coffee shop or a friends house, etc. A new feature of iOS 6 allows us, with the Lightspeed product, to provide the same filtering standard 24/7 anywhere the iPad goes. Even if the iPad is using a 3G connection to access the web!    A comprehensive mobile device management (MDM) solution - This allows us the ability to manage these 1-1 devices effectively, pushing apps to them as needed, monitoring internet usage, selectively disabling features of the devices that may be distracting in the classroom, etc. This is a very granular solution, giving the classroom teacher the ability to selectively control the devices in his or her own classroom. It is this MDM solution that gives us the ability to provide the advanced filtering options mentioned above.    A full-featured learning management system (LMS) called My Big Campus - Think of this as a safe, educational version of Facebook, limited to HCA students, parents, and staff only. This product allows teachers to engage students and parents in a safe, collaborative extension of the classroom, allows teachers and students to store files in the cloud for easy access and retrieval, allows teachers to organize the classroom with calendars, announcements, paperless assignments, etc., provides access to resources, videos and more, and keeps students safe with dynamic filtering of all MBC content. RenWeb has some very limited LMS capabilities; MBC is a full-featured product.    In addition, we purchased a 30-unit iPad cart for the West Campus to begin a pilot of some of features of our 1-1 initiative. During this pilot, we will begin working with teachers to begin implementing some of the 21st Century classroom distinctives in the 9-12 classrooms. Ongoing professional development will continue to be a major component of this effort.        

 

 

1-1 BYOD Initiative January 2014    It is our goal to implement a full 1-1 initiative beginning in 2nd semester of the 2013-14 school year. All students in grades 9-11 will be required to purchase an iPad 2 or newer or the iPad Mini for this BYOD initiative (Bring Your Own Device). Seniors in the Class of 2014 are not required to purchase an iPad. HCA is making the investment in the infrastructure, the software, the professional development; we are asking you to purchase the 1-1 device. All necessary software and apps (other than textbooks) will be provided by HCA.    Please note that the digital textbooks are far less expensive than printed texts, and as we move forward and more titles become available in digital format, the savings in textbook cost alone over a 3-year period could very well exceed the initial cost of an iPad.    FAQ    Why the iPad? - There are a number of reasons we settled on this platform:    ● Leading technology in education that inspires creativity and critical thinking  ● A rich variety of educational apps  ● The availability of iBooks textbooks  ● Dependable, stable platform at a relatively low cost  ● Ability to manage with a MDM like Lightspeed  ● Uniformity of devices emphasizes pedagogy in the classroom rather than IT

expertise  ● Long battery life  ● Small and lightweight  

 Why iPad2 or newer? - iPad2 supports iOS 6 which is required to be able to take advantage of the Lightspeed 24/7 filtering capability.    How much memory do I need? - The answer depends on how many things you plan to install on the iPad. The 16GB base model will serve most needs unless you plan to download your entire music/movie library. Textbooks can take anywhere from 1-3 GB depending on their length and the interactive elements included. The largest apps are apps like iMovie that takes about 600MB, office-type apps 300-400 MB. Many are much smaller.    What other costs can I expect? - There are some optional costs including a cover (which we highly recommend to avoid breakage) and insurance (if desired). Covers can range in prices from $20 to $100 and more. The more expensive covers often include a bluetooth keyboard, something you might find useful that extends the functionality of the iPad.    Can I finance the purchase of this device? Amazon, Microcenter, and Apple all offer no-interest financing options with the use of a store credit card.    

 

 

Why BYOD? - This is an increasing popular option in schools. Because many of the students already have access to an iPad, this minimizes “overlap”, purchasing redundant devices. It allows students to use the device both educationally and personally; they are free to load their own photos, music, and the like on the device.    Who owns the apps? In the BYOD model we will employ, the student owns the apps, even those apps we deem they need for class and we purchase and push to their devices. Each device will be connected to a personal Apple ID, and the Apple ID “owns” the apps. If you purchase another iPad and connect it to that Apple ID, those apps are still available to you.