Let’s Get Digital
RCPS Holds Forum Discussing Conversion
By NOLAN STOUT
Daily News-Record
Posted: December 3, 2015
BRIDGEWATER — Rockingham County parents had an opportunity Wednesday night to see how technology will affect their children’s education.
“My goal is to bring you all back to middle school,” said Kara Velez, an eighthgrade math teacher at Wilbur S. Pence Middle School. “But I want you to see it through the eyes of kids today.”
Rockingham County Public Schools held the first of four public forums Wednesday on the division’s Digital Conversion Initiative at Turner Ashby High School.
Officials estimate the five-year conversion, which began last fall in middle schools, will cost up to $6.5 million to complete.
By NOLAN STOUT
Daily News-Record
Posted: December 3, 2015
BRIDGEWATER — Rockingham County parents had an opportunity Wednesday night to see how technology will affect their children’s education.
“My goal is to bring you all back to middle school,” said Kara Velez, an eighthgrade math teacher at Wilbur S. Pence Middle School. “But I want you to see it through the eyes of kids today.”
Rockingham County Public Schools held the first of four public forums Wednesday on the division’s Digital Conversion Initiative at Turner Ashby High School.
Officials estimate the five-year conversion, which began last fall in middle schools, will cost up to $6.5 million to complete.
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Funding hasn’t been secured for all five years of the project, and estimates are based on the most expensive technology options available. RCPS has budgeted $2.4 million for the first two years.
Velez, Jill Dean, a science teacher at Turner Ashby High School, and Katie Moran, a world history teacher at TA, showcased technology’s role in their classroom. Moran had parents follow an interactive slideshow she uses in her classes, which had embedded videos and links, and sections for the students to answer online. |
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“I can’t, on a sheet of paper, link you to a video or my notes,” Moran told the parents gathered in the school’s library. The slideshow focused on Egypt and linked students to a website teaching them how to write their name in hieroglyphics. They then write it, take a picture on their iPad, and upload it to the slideshow.
“ Of course, it’s more work for me,” Moran said. “ But when it works, it works better than anything I’ve ever done.”
“ Of course, it’s more work for me,” Moran said. “ But when it works, it works better than anything I’ve ever done.”
The division has been working closely with the Rockingham County Board of Supervisors on digital conversion, which integrates computers and online technology in the classroom to diversify teaching methods.
Velez said she worked to integrate technology in her classroom before the initiative began. But because not all students had equal Internet access, she had challenges.
Digital conversion, she said, will help “ level the playing field.”
“ I’ve taken things I already know work and allowed the technology to let me do it more efficiently,” Velez said.
In October, the Rockingham County School Board reported the second phase of the program, which added high schools to the initiative, is progressing efficiently.
The next step, said Oskar Scheikl, director of information for RCPS, is to give some students devices they will use all day.
Scheikl said the school system hasn’t decided which students will get the devices or if they will take them home, but the decision will come soon. “ We’ll probably make a decision on who gets the devices before we decide what devices they get,” he said. Jim Paladino of Dayton, who has four children in the division, said he came out Wednesday to learn where the county is in the transition.
“ Our students need to be able to compete with kids from Fairfax County, Loudoun County and Richmond for jobs and opportunities,” Paladino said. “ I really applaud this effort.”
The next Digital Conversion meeting will be at 7 p. m. Wednesday at J. Frank Hillyard Middle School.
Contact Nolan Stout at 5746-278 or nstout@dnronline.com
Velez said she worked to integrate technology in her classroom before the initiative began. But because not all students had equal Internet access, she had challenges.
Digital conversion, she said, will help “ level the playing field.”
“ I’ve taken things I already know work and allowed the technology to let me do it more efficiently,” Velez said.
In October, the Rockingham County School Board reported the second phase of the program, which added high schools to the initiative, is progressing efficiently.
The next step, said Oskar Scheikl, director of information for RCPS, is to give some students devices they will use all day.
Scheikl said the school system hasn’t decided which students will get the devices or if they will take them home, but the decision will come soon. “ We’ll probably make a decision on who gets the devices before we decide what devices they get,” he said. Jim Paladino of Dayton, who has four children in the division, said he came out Wednesday to learn where the county is in the transition.
“ Our students need to be able to compete with kids from Fairfax County, Loudoun County and Richmond for jobs and opportunities,” Paladino said. “ I really applaud this effort.”
The next Digital Conversion meeting will be at 7 p. m. Wednesday at J. Frank Hillyard Middle School.
Contact Nolan Stout at 5746-278 or nstout@dnronline.com
Reposted with permission.
