Petaluma school district gives every student an iPad

The $4 million program, paid for with bond funds, brings technology into the classroom like never before in Petaluma.|

When students in the Petaluma City Schools District head off to class each morning this school year, their mothers will make sure they have their lunches, the few books they need, their pencils and their iPads.

Every student in the district, from kindergarten through 12th grade, has his or her own personalized iPad issued by the district. Kindergarteners through second graders received iPad Minis, while third graders and above have new iPad Airs.

Cost for the 1-to-1 project is $4 million with the funds coming from bonds approved by voters last year. This is in addition to $3.9 million the district has already spent on infrastructure upgrades to support the new devices and other technology upgrades.

Jane Escobedo, the district’s assistant superintendent of educational services, emphasized that the school-provided devices are for school work.

“The students need to know to use it for their jobs, rather than for play,” she said. “It is a tool the kids need to be ready for the kinds of skills they are going to need for whatever they end up doing.”

Each iPad will be loaded with applications for the appropriate grade level, and can be modified to meet the needs and learning curve of individual students.

“We’ve added another tool to their toolkit,” said Lori Deen, the district’s coordinator of instructional technology. “They are still learning basic skills like reading and writing, but this is jut one more tool. It doesn’t take the place of the other skills they learn.”

The devices are loaned to parents or guardians, who agree to allow their students to use them in accordance with district rules. All students are required to accept and use the iPads, and will be required to do school work on them. Students will be expected to take their iPads home and do their homework on the school machines.

The district introduced iPads four years ago when they were distributed to students in the new Sixth Grade Academy on the Petaluma Junior High School campus. Students in the fourth through sixth grades at McKinley School received the devices three years ago and the district has had 10 carts of the machines rotating through the district for the last few years. But providing a personalized machine to each of the 7,400 students in the district is a huge step in bringing the district into the technology age, Escobedo said.

The iPads were chosen over other available tablets because they are more versatile and allow for more creativity, she said.

District officials acknowledge that there will be a learning curve with the iPads for not only the students, but also the teachers.

“A lot of the students already know how to use them. They are just like their phones,” Deen said. “Kids come in already knowing about the iPads. Those who don’t have the skills pick them up extremely quickly. They partner with those who do have the skills and learn from them.”

Donna Rocca helped introduce tablets to the district four years ago as one of the first two teachers in the innovative Sixth Grade Academy. She said the devices were quickly integrated into the class curriculum.

“It gives the kids so many different options to show how much they know,” she said. “What they create is pretty amazing.”

Deen said the district started working with teachers on technology in education two years ago and has been even more focused this school year.

“Every year we’ve upped the ante some,” she said.

Escobedo explained that five teachers are spending the year on special assignment to help other teachers with the integration of technology into their classrooms, and there is a teacher leader on each campus to help others with the process.

Parents are also being trained in what the new devices mean to their children’s education through a series of parent nights that will continue through the school year.

Escobedo said there is another advantage to the iPads.

“There is a huge cost saving on e-books,” she said. “Buying the licenses for e-books is much cheaper than buying paper books, and you can update them every year without having to buy new books.”

And, because students are students, she said the district has allocated funds for iPads that are damaged, lost or eaten by dogs.

(Contact John Jackson at johnie.jackson@arguscourier.com.)

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