Looking for "Compelling Evidence of Success"

As I recently described here last week, several of us at Mercy High have set about the business of updating iMercy, a book available through iTunes that describes the technology program at Mercy. 

A special committee of six* is handling a section of the book called "Compelling Evidence of Success".  In 2013 we comprehensively surveyed ninth graders and staff about their use of technology. These surveys were based on the ISTE Standards. 

We intend to revisit these populations two years lated and give them the identical surveys. It will be really interesting to see how attitudes and practices have changed.  We will also will survey our current ninth graders.  It will be interesting to see how their experiences and impressions might differ from the ninth graders of two years ago.

We will express most of the results through charts and multimedia.

page 19 of iMercy

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Committee Members include Larry Baker, Christopher Blitz, Alison Kline-Kator. Dr. Cheryl Kreger, Ann Lusch, Cindy Richter.

Updating iMercy

Less than two years ago as part of our application process to become an Apple Distinguished School, we published iMercy to iTunes. iMercy is a 27 page multi-touch book which describes our school's technology program.

Unsurprisingly, a number of significant changes have occurred over the past two school years, so we would like to reflect these in an updated edition of the book.

A committee of a dozen enthusiastic volunteers recently convened for this project. We have two immediate tasks:

Some of us are going to collect new data with and ISTE Standards based survey on how our students use their iPads for school after three years of experience. Others will review the five chapters of the the book to consider what to weed out and what to update.

Page 11 of the iMercy first edition

Besides bringing fresh data analysis into iMercy there will obviously be some new content in the following areas:

*iCreate

*Mercy Tech Talk

*New iTunes U Courses

*Paperless Grading with Schoology

*Paperless assignment workflow with Schoology

*New technology focused courses like Photo, Film and Animation

We hope to have the new edition updated by mid-July. Of course I will keep you posted!

Unintended Consequences

As I mentioned in Distinguishing Our School, we have initiated two major efforts to distinguish our school's integration of educational technology.  In addition to publishing an iBook which catalogues some of our best practices and innovations, we are going to conduct survey research that measures our students progress towards meeting the ISTE-NETS for Students.

 Katie B.'s home page & original photo

When our sub-committee was recently meeting to write this survey, our president, Dr. Cheryl Delaney-Kreger, made an interesting observation. She noted that iPad had empowered our ninth graders in ways that we had not foreseen.  For example, students who may not have stood out as academically talented in conventional ways, had self-nominated themselves to be iWizards and were showing exceptional aptitude plying digital skills.  Also, in new ways,  we are seeing students take direction and responsibility for their own learning.

Of course Mercy has always celebrated a great range of student talents.  We have also seen students assume self-direction for their learning in various disciplines and programs.  But it occurs to me that the iPad has facilitated great possibilities in both of these areas because it is so easy to use.  One does not need considerable training with the tool before one can harness its powers.  In other words, this year our ninth graders were more or less able to "hit the ground running" with our technology.  And they were fortunate to find themselves in an environment where technology was was already part of the DNA of our instructional environment.

I am really looking forward to seeing how we stack up against the NETS.  I'll let you know this summer!