December 2007 — Special Feature
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THE Journal's 2007 Innovators : 2
Ronda Stonecipher
San Marcos Consolidated Independent
School District (TX)
A news reporter asked a student from the San Marcos Consolidated
Independent School District, "What do you think having
an iPod has done for you? What are the benefits of having an
iPod?" The student struggled with his answer, when his classmate,
a 16-year-old
new to this country
from India, scribbled
a note on paper and
handed it to him. The
note read: "It's like
having a teacher in
your pocket."
Can there be a better description of what iPods have meant to the students in this central Texas school district? The district gives out between 225 and 300 iPods annually, for use at school and home, to deaf-education students in grades 3 and 4 (the teachers record themselves signing, use iMovie to add closed captioning, and record their voices—that way, the students' parents can help them); special education students in grades 5 and 6; and newcomers—students learning English as a second language—in grades 7 to 12.
Ronda Stonecipher, the district's director of instructional technology, says that the iPod project "is an effort to prevent students from sitting lost in class and not graduating."
Teachers load the iPods with supporting curriculum materials that are suited to each student's grade level, providing students with the opportunity to create projects, videos, audio, and other content for all their courses. The devices are improving communication between home and school, and even students and parents, as they allow classwork content to be seen and shared. The training is minimal: Stonecipher spends about 30 minutes a day with teachers who are digital immigrants, and little or no time with those who are comfortable with the technology. The results from 2006-2007, the project's first year, are encouraging.
"What we found is that the students who had the iPods made progress immediately," says Stonecipher. "Their grades for the most part went up at least one grade level." She also notes that students felt much more confident in class, were better able to apply the language skills they'd acquired, and performed at a higher rate on standardized tests.
"We can't afford not to provide this for our students," she says. "We need all our students to be successful."
