District picked to join Innovative Schools
Elizabeth Forward School District has been chosen as one of eight districts nationwide to join the League of Innovative Schools, a coalition formed by Digital Promise, a national nonprofit based in Washington, D.C.
The district was one of eight selected to participate in the league this month and was the only district chosen in Pennsylvania. A total of 40 public school districts now take part in the coalition.
In an email, Jason Tomassini of Digital Promise said the nonprofit was authorized by Congress “to advance breakthrough technologies” for the improvement of education, and that the selected school districts are “committed to digital innovation that delivers results for students.”
“We’re honored we were selected to be named to the League of Innovative Schools,” superintendent Bart Rocco said.
Elizabeth Forward assistant superintendent Todd Keruskin said the district’s decision to lease iPads for students this fall was not the reason the district was chosen to take part in the league.
“I think it has a lot to do with our gaming academy at the high school, our SMALLab at the middle school, and the renovation of the high school library into a media center,” he said.
According to educational research, children are either visual learners, who learn best by reading and seeing diagrams and pictures; auditory learners, who learn best by hearing; or kinesthetic learners, who learn concepts best when they are moving and experiencing things handson.
Some children learn in a combination of styles. A lot of research has focused on how to help kinesthetic learners, since they often don’t learn well while sitting in a classroom.
The SMALLab, which opened in August 2012, is like “a big game that’s on the floor,” Mr. Rocco said. The new classroom uses motioncapture technology to track students’ movements in 3-D as they learn in an interactive manner by moving computer graphics representing words, parts of mathematical equations or other parts of their lessons with wands on a big mat on the floor.
It has been used to teach concepts that children have difficulty with — including vocabulary words, fractions and angles — and has been used to teach lessons in balancing ecosystems, among other subjects.
Mr. Rocco said his favorite computer program for the SMALLab allows students to “pick up” items in the Earth’s crust with their wands to learn about the Earth.
“Using multiple senses to learn improves ability to learn,” Mr. Rocco said.
Kasey Van Ostrand of Digital Promise said one reason Elizabeth Forward was chosen to participate in the coalition is its ability to leverage partnerships to enhance learning in its schools, such as the partnership with Carnegie Mellon University to provide the high school’s game-creation technology and the district’s soon-to-be launched DREAM Factory at the middle school.
District administrators said the DREAM Factory, which will open in September, will enable every middle school student to learn robotics, engineering, design and programming.
Every district that joins the league commits to working with other districts to share what works in the innovative digital technologies each district is trying.
“We believe that using these new technologies will improve student learning,” Mr. Rocco said. “We’re really looking forward to having an exchange and a dialogue with these other school districts from across the country.”
Mr. Keruskin said he looks forward to meeting with representatives of other districts from the league at the White House in summer 2014. Before that, district administrators will attend the Digital Promise League of Innovative School conference Oct. 23-25 in Michigan.
Two rounds of applications are held each year to join the league, Ms. Van Ostrand wrote in an email. Districts are accepted to join in the fall and spring of each year. The first districts were selected in fall 2011.
She said Congress authorized Digital Process in the Higher Education Act of 2008 and it was signed into law by President George W. Bush, with Digital Promise launched by President Barack Obama in September 2011.
For information: www.digitalpromise.org/initiatives/leagueof