Where did the coaches go?

I never imaged that my life would end up being locked in what we named the "Vault" when our 700 iPads and LifeProof cases came into the site. One variable that I never counted on was who was going to unbox the iPads, then the cases, and put each and every iPad in it's case. Well I quickly found out it was me and my partner coach. We spend almost every waking hour assembling iPads into cases. Here is what it looked like...

Let the party planning begin

With about 700 devices coming to the school is just about a month the planning for rolling them out and getting them in the hands of the students begins. Digital Promise has challenged me and my partner coach to plan a party- wedding style. They are looking for a big party a lot like the Apple release parties and events...

So how do I make this happen? Does an event like this fit my students and families? The answer was no.... We want our parents to be able to get in and out of the site as quickly and easily as possible. To accomplish this we decided to allow parent to earn a "fast pass" line ticket. The "Fast Pass" is earned by parents watching a series of four videos. Each video covers a set of important digital citizenship information. The first video is on iPad care. Many of our parents have never seen none the less own an iPad in their home. I created a video that taught the proper care. Parents also watched a video on the basic use of an iPad. The video included the information that parents needed to be successful. The third video was on how parents can be proactive in managing the digital citizenship of their student. The fourth and final video was on the iPad district policies including insurance. After the four videos were watched parents had to submit a form stating that they watched the videos and understood the policies.

The Fast Pass was also able to be upgraded to a "Super Fast Pass" if the parents got their required forms and filled them our prior to the day. For the Super Fast Pass parents we had a special early release event on the Friday night prior to the main rollout event. We were able to get about 125 parents and students their iPads that night. The next day we were back at it again and handed out almost 600 of the iPads by the end of the day.

Here is a video showing the rollout event: https://vimeo.com/110793927

Something called a Digital Integration Coach

About a year ago I was approached by my principal about an amazing opportunity that the school was given to go 1:1 with iPads in the fall of 2014. This was not just a simple 1:1 but one in which our students would take the iPads home and have cellular connectivity on them. FINALLY a way to help bridge the digital divide that the students at our school faced. What did it have to do with me? As part of the grant they are providing the school with a digital integration coach. Loving to take on new challenges of course I said yes.

The question is what is a digital integration coach and why are they important to schools? For me a digital integration coach's main function and role is to help teachers and students utilize technology int their learning as a tool- teaching those who have and use technology to see it as something to make their life more effective and efficient.

And NOW the journey begins....