Exciting Tech Times at Mercy High School

These are exciting tech times at Mercy High School.  Our Board of Trustees has just approved some big summer expenditures related to instructional technology at Mercy.  I have included these with some other major projects:

May, 2013  

* All teachers and ninth grade students are completing a survy based on the ISTE NETS standards so that we can gather some data on the impact of our iPad 1:1 program.

*Incoming ninth graders order their new iPads at the Mercy Site through June.

June, 2013

* The IT Department will be preparing new MacBook Airs for Mercy teachers.  These laptops will all contain iBooks Author software.

July, 2013

* New ninth graders and transfers will begin receiving their new Mercy iPad packages.  Mr. James and Mr. Bank will give them a 30 minute session with their new devices.

* Mercy will be install a major wifi network upgrade that will significantly boost capacity and speed. It will support our Apple TVs now and our Technology Vision into the next years.

*Mercy will get a major upgrade of our "old" computer lab.  Brand new HP computers will replace the "old" ones and the lab will seat 25 students and 1 instructor just like our Mac Lab.  CAD software will be loaded on these machines for our new design courses. All machines will have dual monitors.

August, 2013

*Mercy will publish an iBook describing our innovative technology program.  We are using technology in innovative and creative ways.  We want our community to read about it, hear about it, and watch it in a new iBook.

*The iWizards will lead our new students through a half-day iPad orientation.  The program has been created by the iWizards.  They have been working for months on the project!

Sometime, 2013-14

*Mercy will host a regional educational technology conference, showcasing and sharing best instructional technology practices.  Mrs. Ann Lusch is taking the reigns of this project.

Mercy High School is not resting on its laurels.  We intend to continue as leaders in the field of instructional technology.

A Look into Design Foundations

I have blogged previously about our Design Foundations course.  As part of Mercy 2.0, our Art Department chairperson, Susan Smith, has designed a marvelous course that we now require of all students.  It introduces each student to multimedia and technology from the artist's perspective.  Students create pieces with traditional materials but also work with animation, audio files, and video editing (using professional grade software).  The students also design web portfolios.

On April 10, Susan made a presentation to our Board of Trustees.  I asked if I might share her slides with you.  We have removed the videos, but we will publishing some fresh ones at a later date.

Susan's Presentation Slides for Design Foundations

As you can see, we have provided the students with a rich visual and technical experience.  Also a foundation has been built for advanced curriculum which builds upon these skills.  I expect to be posting about our new digital courses in September!

From Susan Smith's slide deck (photo from Sarah, class of 2013)

Rockin' with our Ninth Grade iPad "Wizards"

Lucy gets the girls organized

Last week, 26 MHS ninth graders spent a full school day with our Mercy 2.0 professional development consultant, Lucy Gray.   Lucy has facilitated staff PD with the staff through the year.  On Friday, she spent a day challenging and organizing this enthusiastic group of freshwomen who had applied or been invited to join this group.  Lucy put them through the paces with a number of activities:

Ice Breaker
Lucy has a great idea for helping our ninth graders become acquainted-- She asked each one to name her iPad "superpower" and favorite app. There was an unanticipated benefit to this conversation.  The girls served as a window into the classroom usage of the iPad and to what degree it had been integrated into their teachers' instructional methods. Their nominated apps were interesting, and I will share them in an upcoming post.

Doing the Research
In anticipation of the day, Lucy, Tom James, and I developed an agenda that we shared with the girls in the form of a Google Doc.  Included in the agenda were links to sites which featured student technology groups which were active elsewhere.  Consequently, after the ice-breaker, the girls did some online research and brainstormed about the mission and activities of our particular group.

Kern Kelley streamed live to us.

Video Conferencing

Before and during lunch our ninth graders visited Utah, Maine, and Chicago by teleconferencing with Steve Hargadon, Kern Kelley, Jason Markey.  These three esteemed educators shared their ideas about the formation of student tech groups such as ours.  Kern's description of the Tech Sherpas was particularly helpful.

Taylor shares her group's ideas.

Plotting a Game Plan
The girls came up with the following consensus on the types of activities they would explore and develop:

• Tech Support
• Live streaming events
• After school drop in sessions
• Screencasted tutorials
• Blog posts with tech tips and advice
• Advocacy
• Help with tech orientation for new students
• Co-teach with orientation leaders
• Weekly tech tips in a blog, on twitter and other social media
• Skits, commercials, and movie trailers around tech use  and being a good  digital citizen
• Promote informal use of tech  outside of school
• Communication
• internal
• external
• Geek spirit
• Advisory
• Communicate with faculty and ststaff  about issues of coincern
• social media
• apps
• procedures

Ms. Smith shares a comment while Wizards work on the Ning

Building the Ning
The group spent considerable time discussing the platform for future online collaboration. Drawing on Lucy's rich experience in social media we decided on a Ning.  

For the last hour of our day together, the group went to Mercy's new iMac lab to work on building the Ning. The Ning is ideal for the group, because it is private, serves as a marvelous place to store media and conduct discussions. The girls also joined task forces on the Ning

Throughout the day I took advantage of my relatively passive role to take pictures and record video about the wizards and other Mercy 2.0 matters.  

Without a doubt, November 30, 2012, was one of my favorite all-time days at Mercy.