Wasatch County School Board Members unanimously approved the purchase of Apple IPad Devices for all students Kindergarten through 8th grade at a purchase price of $2.4 million dollars during the March 21st public school board meeting. Jim Judd, administrator at Wasatch County School District said with the digital conversion they have strived to put a digital tool in the hands of every student to engage them as learners in a better way.
A three month pilot program has been putting Apple IPads into the hands of 1st through 5th graders at Daniels Canyon and Midway Elementary. During the pilot program teachers noticed higher engagement and better understanding, and more motivation within the students, specifically non native English speakers who had a higher level of engagement while using the iPads.
“A digital tool can be just a replacement for pencil and paper, and that’s nice, but when we can create, that when the learning gets deeper and that’s what exciting to me is that I see the creation. Plus the enthusiasm among the students is great. It’s something they are more familiar with and they can do very easily. We really love the idea and the rest of the teachers are very excited that things will go this direction.” said Daniels Canyon principal DeAnna Lloyd
Paul Sweat, school superintendent speaking of a Leadership Conference keynote speaker, Michael Fullan, one of the leading thinkers and researchers of public education said this, “School is boring. School is boring. We have to do a better job of making school, learning and education fun and exciting for our kids. We need to meet them halfway, we need to meet them where they are at. I think that becoming a full on Apple District with IPads K-8th and our MacBooks in the high school, I think we have a really strong argument that school is not boring in Wasatch County. School is fun. We are excited. Teachers are excited. Students are excited. And no longer will students sit in rows of desks and listen to teachers disseminate information to be regurgitated on a multiple choice test. That type of education we’ve moved on and we’ve moved to the top of the depth of knowledge chart. Creation level and this is a big deal when we talk about first and second graders creating rather than listening to a teacher, listening to information be told to them. This is life changing. This is going to make such a difference for our students as they come up through the system, as they go on out into the world.”
