Guest Technology Blogger: Senior Ashley Whitmore

I am excited to begin a guest blogger feature on my Principal's Blog, giving students the chance to speak about their experiences at Nipmuc. With our Community iFair scheduled to take place tomorrow, 3/26 from 5:45pm - 8pm at Nipmuc, my first guest blogger will be discussing the impact of 1:1 learning. Ashley Whitmore is a senior at Nipmuc and a member of the STEM Scholars Program. She will be presenting on Virtual High School at tomorrow's Community iFair. In the post below she discusses some of the impacts of 1:1 learning on Nipmuc's student body. 

Being a senior, this is my first and only year being a part of the 1:1 initiative. That being said, I can still see some effects it has had on the students, teachers, and school in general. One of my favorite things about this 1:1 initiative is how creative I can be. In the past we were limited to what we can do with a pencil, paper and maybe some tape, and I’m not exactly the best at drawing so you can see how well that worked. Where we once had to do poster boards or papers, we can now make presentations using a PowerPoint (and not have to go to the media center, which is always crammed) or make videos using iMovie. The possibilities are endless. And now we can just email everything to our teachers which makes everyone’s lives a little easier and bags a little lighter.

On the topic of lighter backpacks, the iPads have eliminated some rather heavy textbooks and a lot of paper from our bags. I’ve always had to carry around at least two or more textbooks, not the case this year though. Since most of my textbooks are online I only carry one textbook, which eliminates a lot of weight from my bag. I also had to go through my bag at least twice a term and clean out a lot of the papers that I was done with so I could have space for everything and be able to lift my bag without hurting myself. Now, much to my back’s enjoyment, I don’t have that problem. Plus, if I accidentally drop my bag on someone’s foot, which happens more than you would think, I’m probably not going to break their toes.

Probably the biggest perk I’ve found is the organization factor that comes along with the 1:1 initiative and the iPads. I have all of my papers on one device, all my notebooks, and a lot of my handouts. A lot of people, myself included, used to only pack their bags for the classes they had that day. That’s all fine and dandy if you’re never wrong when it comes to figuring out what academic day it is. Most people forget what academic day it is at least once, and that one day is always the day you need whatever you forgot the most. This problem is eliminated with the iPads.

Now us kids aren’t the only ones enjoying the technology upgrade; the teachers are as well. A lot of my teachers now use their iPads to grade tests a lot faster using an app, which saves teachers time and helps students figure out what they may need to correct right then and there. Also, some of my science teachers have found games or 3D representations of things that may be hard to grasp in a 2D form, such as a human brain or a crime scene.

I know that the whole 1:1 initiative and iPad thing is new and in years following the program will continue to grow and progress in ways I can’t imagine. I can’t wait to hear about them!

Thank you, Ashley. Join us to see Ashley and a variety of Mendon-Upton students and teachers present at the Community iFair - Thursday, 3/26, from 5:45pm - 8pm at Nipmuc!