Cincinnati Country Day School

OverviewCountry or Region: United StatesIndustry: Education

School ProfileCincinnati Country Day School provides each student with superior preparation for success in college and life. It inspires a passion for learning and independent thinking through a steadfast commitment to academic excellence, personal integrity, and service to others.

Number of Students: 830Gender: MixedAge Range: 10-18School Leader: Dr. Robert MacraeSchool Website: www.countryday.net

Cincinnati Country Day School has been selected to be part of the Microsoft Innovative Schools World Tour due to being a showcase example of the following Innovation Topics:

1. 1:1 learning environments. Students work on their own devices and can use technology at any time to access educational tools.

2. Virtual learning environments. Use of technology to extend learning outside of the classroom.

3. Professional learning communities. Technology and programs that support collaboration among teachers and their peer groups in other schools.

1:1 learning environmentsCincinnati Country Day School (CCDS) was the first school in the United States to go 1:1 in grades 5-12 back in 1996. Ten years ago, the school started using tablets, which it found to be transformational. Writing, annotating, highlighting, sketching, and illustrating process are a huge part of the teaching and learning experience; tablets also facilitate the use of digital ink when that makes sense for the task at hand.

This year, CCDS deployed hybrid tablets running the Windows 8 operating system that provide all-day battery life along with a full operating system. The tablet can be removed from the keyboard when a teacher or student would rather interact with pen or touch. The technology supports all the essential tasks, such as personalized instruction, engaged learning, collaboration, and alternative forms of assessment.

Key Technology

Every student is equipped with a tablet PC running Windows 8. Microsoft OneNote is a huge part of CCDS, enabling the majority of classes to use no paper. Everything is done in OneNote, giving teachers access to their students’ work and progress automatically. In addition, there are networked wireless projectors in every room at CCDS.

A high-resolution tablet stylus with an active digitizer is another essential tool. In education, handwriting and sketching are part of the final product. Students take class notes and teachers mark papers and write as they present, underlining, circling, and drawing connecting lines for emphasis. Stylus use is a great complement to extensible OneNote digital pages.

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“You really can have it all—

Windows 8 tablets with

touch, ink, and laptop

functionality remove all

constraints for educators and

allow IT departments to

manage, maintain, support,

upgrade, and scale efficiently

and effectively. There is one

reason why we are a full

Windows shop—our pursuit

of the most powerful

teaching and learning

environment led us there—if

there were something better,

we would be using it!”

Robert Baker, Director of Technology, Cincinnati Country Day School

Virtual learning environmentsA common misconception at CCDS is that students are looking at their screens all day, every day. Much of the success of the program focuses on preserving class time by extending the classroom virtually. This is done in many different ways; a great example is “flipping the paradigm.” Tablets make it easy for teachers to create screencasts that allow students to view lectures outside of class, freeing class time for labs, debates, and more challenging work. Students who do not understand the material the first time can view a lecture again.

Shared OneNote notebooks streamline the daily workflow for teachers and students and make formative assessments another part of the normal class routine. Teachers can see how students are progressing on their homework, even as they work on it in the late afternoon or evening.

Having every student equipped with a device means that CCDS can easily take advantage of project-based learning and alternative forms of assessment, from providing feedback with digital ink to sharing audio and video seamlessly when that modality fits the task at hand. CCDS takes advantage of both synchronous and asynchronous learning; collaboration is amplified by the tablets and software.

Key Technology It is important to CCDS that every device has the same ability so that no one is limited by their device. CCDS uses all of the applications in Microsoft Office, Windows Movie Maker, and many other programs to support virtual learning.

Professional learning communitiesCCDS is committed to sharing its experiences with educators everywhere. Each year, the school hosts three or four tablet conferences that have been attended by educators from every continent except

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It is important for students to learn in the type of environment that they will find when they enter the job market.

Antarctica and South America. More than 30 instructors at Cincinnati Country Day School share their knowledge and vision with the attendees at each three-day conference. In this way, CCDS has developed relationships with schools around the world and has spent considerable time helping them emulate CCDS practices.

Key Technology Although called “tablet conferences,” they are specifically defined as pedagogical conferences for educators to see and be inspired by what is possible when everyone has access to tablets.

Improving student outcomesCincinnati Country Day School is developing future leaders, not just technology leaders. CCDS believes that regardless of a student’s field of study, technology will be an essential part of leadership, so it is important for students to learn in the type of environment that they will find when they enter the job market. Students leave CCDS with the confidence to use current technologies as well as technologies that do not yet exist to enhance their workflow, their collaborations, and their success.

Driving leadership and a culture of innovationCCDS tries to empower all students to experiment, innovate, and learn from failure. They believe that risk-taking is an important component of innovation and that fewer constraints lead to more efficiency, personalization, and innovation.

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Technology Infrastructure

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For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft in Education, visit:www.microsoft.com/education/ww/solutions/Pages/index.aspx

For more information about Cincinnati Country Day School, visit: www.countryday.net

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published November 2013