How technology can augment good teaching

WEDNESDAY, MAY 30: Since 1997, Saltus Grammar School has been a leader in laptop technology.

Our vision has always included using technology to augment good teaching. At the time, this initiative was considered revolutionary, but in actual fact, it was more evolutionary, as the school has since added a complex and comprehensive infrastructure supporting 700 laptops, 60 interactive SMARTBoards, netbooks, a state-of-the-art digital recording music suite — and, most recently, iPads at the Lower Primary level.

The rationale for Saltus’s one-computer-per-student philosophy in the Secondary Department was that we had a responsibility to prepare students for life in a digital society.

Schools are undergoing a major transformation as they transition to a digital learning environment.

Try to envision the workplace of tomorrow: what skills need to be developed in today’s students so that their maximum success can be ensured? While we might not know what their jobs will look like, we already know that professionals need to be adaptable learners, able to think critically and effectively.

In Bermuda, those skills are especially vital for anyone entering the workforce, due to the ever-present labour shortage in white-collar, business-oriented jobs in the banking, financial and legal services, and reinsurance/insurance industries.

We believe that the sooner students come face-to-face with the latest technologies, the better.

A two-year-old will quickly learn how to pinch and scroll palm-size tablets. First- and second-grade students are creating their own online books, complete with student-generated text and images, along with links to external sites, photos and videos.

Our introduction, just over a week ago, of iPads in our Lower Primary Department, links us to classrooms across North America and Europe which have embraced tablet technology since the iPad’s launch in 2010.

The initiative will likely form the centrepiece of a curriculum that blends online with face-to-face learning.

Tablets are ideal for students at the Primary level thanks to a battery life of more than eight hours, a weight of less than a pound, plus a short start-up time. Opportunities for collaborative learning and a reduction of paper use are just a couple of the many spinoff benefits.

And with 15,000 educational applications at their fingertips, teachers have no trouble finding content for all areas of the curriculum. They no longer need to disrupt a lesson to travel to the desktop computer lab — and soon they won’t need to send bulky exercise books home in student knapsacks.

Our thanks go to local Apple re-seller A. F. Smith Ltd., whose staff worked closely with Saltus teachers to ensure the iPads launch at Lower Primary was a success.

Digital technologies have changed the world — in particular, the way students are taught. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is becoming increasingly a natural part of teaching and learning, like the paper and pencils of yesteryear.

Research indicates that technology’s use in the classroom can have an additional positive influence on student learning when the learning goals are clearly articulated prior to the technology’s use.

The classroom teacher is still the key, but applied effectively, technology implementation not only increases student learning, understanding and achievement, but also augments motivation to learn, encourages collaborative learning and supports the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Integrating technology into instruction tends to move classrooms from teacher-dominated environments to ones that are more student-centred. In short, students become more engaged and have more control over their own learning.

That is our goal at Saltus as we embrace advancements in teaching and technology as critical components of a contemporary education.

Our mission is to guide students in all our departments towards becoming confident, adaptable, independent thinkers who are easily able to navigate the fast-changing environment of the 21st century.

• Ted Staunton is the headmaster at Saltus Grammar School.