The Newberg School District is trying to make class more engaging for students by melding it with the technology many of them already know and love: think iPods, e-readers and ultra-fast computer notebooks.
  
To that end, the school board is using part of the $27 million bond approved by voters in May 2011 to fund a number of pilot programs featuring new technology this year — one of which was rolled out early during the migrant summer school program at Joan Austin Elementary.

   Two teachers in that program, which is offered to students who come from low-income families or have changed schools multiple times, have been using the district’s 30 new iPods, primarily to build reading fluency in students.

   “I am finishing up gathering data this week, but I can already see from the data I do have that the program has been very successful,” said Jillian Risher, who teaches a fourth-grade summer school class. “Students who were far below grade level are now at or above (that level), which will set them up for success going into fifth grade.”

   Risher, in her first year at Newberg, submitted several grant proposals to bring iPods into Dundee School District classrooms, where she said they also made a significant positive impact.

   She added that the iPods are not only effective, they are more efficient than traditional teaching methods.

   “That’s especially important in teaching reading: making it individualized,” she said, adding that, with the iPods, “everybody can have a different curriculum they’re using.”

   In the summer school program, Risher and third-grade teacher Megan Shaw downloaded prerecorded curricula onto the devices for each student. The students complete and submit assignments, do research and record themselves reading with iPod applications.

   But Risher’s opinion is that the success of the iPods goes beyond the technology itself.

   “I think it could be the different motivation,” she said. “This makes learning fun. It doesn’t seem like a chore.”

   The devices have been particularly helpful in building the vocabulary of Hispanic summer school students,  Risher said, many of whom are not native English speakers. Whereas they may normally be tempted to gloss over words they don’t know while reading, the iPods allow them to define any word with a single touch.

   “It reduces a lot of barriers,” she said.

   Students’ math and writing skills have also been improved by the iPods, which offer apps that track students’ progress and can even assist teachers in creating lesson plans that target specific needs.

   Risher said she and Migrant School Director Jonathan Fost collaborated on the effort to include iPods among the district’s technology pilot programs. She said she plans to integrate iPod use into her lesson plan for the upcoming school year, when she will teach fourth-grade and Title I classes at Edwards Elementary.

   “It’s all about how can you build a child who can use technology responsibly,” she said. “We all know they can use technology for all kinds of negative things, but we’re trying to figure out how to use it as a learning tool.”

Story by Tyler Francke, Newberg Graphic
Photo by Gary Allen