home

=Welcome to the Tintern Schools ipad Wiki.= In May 2012 Tintern Schools purchased 30 ipads and 5 Android devices to explore how this technology can be used in the classroom to improve teaching and learning.

In the two years since the first ipad was released on the market in April 2010 ipads have become the 'must have' technology in schools across the country. Within months of their release some schools purchased ipads for whole grades with the view that they would revoluntarize the delivery of edcuational outcomes in their schools by putting an affordable device in every students hand. The potential for ipads to engage students is without question however fully understanding how this technology might revoluntarize education takes longer. Action research in real classrooms is necessary to fully explore the potentail of ipad devices in a school setting. The purpose of this wiki is to add to this research with antedotal evidence from a range of classroom teachers as well as hearing from the IT support team who work behind the scenes to make the technology work within the school environment. To explore the educational possibilities in our school members of the schools 'Innovations and Technology Committee' were each issued with an ipad. Members of the committee have made a commitment to using their ipad for a range of school activities and to record their experiences on a regular basis via this wiki. Our purpose is to share our expeiences and invite comment and discussion from other members of the school community as well as the wider community.

Members of the committee include:
 * 2 Junior school classroom teachers - TN Year 1 Girls (9 ipads - 1:1 classroom experience) and SW Year 1/2 Boys (5 ipads - 1:3 experience)
 * TN Junior School Education Support teacher - (1 ipad - 1: many experience)
 * TN Middle School Music teacher - (10 ipads - 1: many experience - Middle School Music program)
 * Head of Finance (Chair of Committee) - Exploring use of ipad for managment
 * Head of ICT - Exploring use of Android devices with Years 9-10
 * Director of Information & Technology Services - Managing Wiki and liasoning with classroom teachers to support their work with ipads in the classroom
 * Resource Teacher - 1 pad - Exploring range of eduction apps to support school ipad initiative
 * Database manager - Exploring potential of ipads to deliver student services to teachers
 * AV Technician - Dealing with technical issues such as deployment and managment of ipad apps of school owned ipads
 * Network admins - Dealing with technical issues such as connectivity to the school network, wireless printing, network security and web filtering

To further inform and support the technology direction of the school Tintern Schools is sending one member of the team to the 2012 ISTE Conference in San Diego. Reports from the conference will be posted to the wiki during the conference in June - July.

Sue Healey Director of Information & Technology Services Tintern School