@ben40forte visits IPACA

On Thursday 6th March it was my pleasure to welcome Ben Forte (@ben40forte) and his colleague from Churston Grammar School to the Isle of Portland Aldridge Community Academy. I admire and respect Ben's work and a couple of months ago it was a pleasure to make my own visit to Churston Grammar School. With this in mind, it was great to read his blog post about IPACA last night which I include below for future reference -

IPACA - Chromebooks 1:1

Original blog post available at - 

http://outandaboutedtech.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/ipaca-chromebooks-11.html

We had a great day out! Greeted at the Osprey Quay Campus by "Where's Wally & Harry Potter" (World Book Day)

We then proceeded to the first classroom and took off our shoes :)

Flexible spaces is key at the Osprey Quay Campus. The large rooms allow for groups to be completely separated from each other to work in smaller groups on specific topics. I really like the whiteboard desks allowing students to work together on ideas without wasting lots of paper.

Technology is very widely used. It is embedded yet subtle. Digital Signage linked to Apple TVs with class Flickr feeds showing all the latest student work, was a feature which I loved. The students were free to choose technology which they liked to use be it iPad, Chromebook or others.

We then got in the car and moved onto the Royal Manor Campus to get down to proper Chromebook business.

We had a chance to speak to all different people from helpful IT Technical staff, teachers, SLT, students and even a governor. It is very clear that everyone is very happy with the choice of technology to have gone for in the 1:1 trial.

The biggest benefit that kept coming back from students was how much of an impact is achieved by having the device at home for homework. Some even said they feel less need for Facebook type pressures as they can all communicate using school email so easily.

Homework was even being done during school lunch in the canteen!

Chromebooks were not being used for the sake of using them. Some lessons were using them some weren't. Some students were using them some weren't. Google Forms, Shared Presentations, Photographing Technology projects and online research were just a handful of things that we saw in a few classrooms.

I look forward to our future with introducing more Chromebooks. Thanks Gary Spracklen (@Nelkcarps) and everyone at IPACA for showing us around your school! Keep up the good work! #IPACALearn!!

http://www.ipaca.uk.com/