Students in the Alaska Native community of Nanwalek have only had their new iPads for a few Months now, but already, they’re doing all kinds of cool things with them. The school got the tablets this fall through Apple’s program to bring technology into schools in low income areas in response to President Obama’s ‘ConnectEd’ Initiative.
In September, Nanwalek School started their year by distributing iPads to all 70 plus students. The kids immediately started making videos of themselves, like this one where kindergarten and first grade students stand in their classroom practicing phonemes – sounding out words.
And in the process, Nancy Kleine, Principal at Nanwalek says, something unexpected happened.
“The kids can’t quit watching themselves on the videos, " said Kleine.
Nanwalek only got high speed internet about a year ago. The kids in the remote Alaska Native village across Kachemak Bay from Homer just weren’t used to seeing themselves on film.
“And in the process of watching themselves over and over with the films that they’re making, they’re of course learning the sounds. And so that’s been kind of a little delight for us to watch those little ones see themselves and watch themselves,” said Kleine.
The kids couldn’t get enough. They were fascinated and engaging in auditory and visual learning every time they re-watched the videos. That’s just one way the iPads are already making a huge difference in student learning in Nanwalek.
The school was the only one in Alaska selected to receive the iPads through the program and one of only 114 total in in the country. As a result it received an iPad for each one of its students, every teacher and aide. In addition, all the teachers received MacBooks. The school also got Apple TVs in every instructional area, an iMac for the front desk, storage carts for the students’ iPads and charging stations in every classroom. In addition, school staff got 17 days of professional development and the school received three years of support from Apple. Teachers also got funding to purchase apps for their classes.
Kleine says, in addition to the younger students reading on their iPads, recording themselves reading and then listening back – Grade school students are creating their own books. Older students are even more engaged with the new technology.
“As you move up, you know, the kids are taking more responsibility for their education by using teacher created websites. In the fourth [and] fifth grade, the kids are creating their own websites,” said Kleine.
Kleine says behavioral problems are down. Students just pay attention more because the technology is so engaging and it allows teachers to modify lessons easily to help students who are below grade level catch up. She says they’re also using the tablets for Native cultural and language learninng.
“We also have been able to incorporate them into the Sug’stun language retention learning and we’re working on that more and more right now. The teacher has created some historical books – so she’s taken old photos from their culture and put Sug’stun titles and captions to them, and so the kids are getting that piece too, with their iPads.”
Inspiring student learning through a new means, Kleine says, was the vision the school had when they applied for the ConnectEd Grant. She just never imaged it would happen so naturally or so fast.
“Truly, we kind of hit the jackpot, educationally,”said Kleine.
Kleine says the school has a project in the works where students will eventually use their iPads to record interviews with Elders. Until then, she says the students seem pleased to continue watching videos of themselves learning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDh2bj_RStw
