Students succeed at their own speed with iPad and Mac

When you walk into Wilder Elementary School, just outside of Boise, Idaho, it’s what you don’t hear that sets it apart.

There aren’t any bells ringing between classes to tell kids when to move from room to room. There aren’t teachers standing at the blackboard, calling out one lesson to 30 or so students. In fact, there isn’t a lot of loud talking, or reprimanding, or noise anywhere.

But don’t let the quiet fool you — in those hushed classrooms, an educational revolution is taking place.

Wilder Elementary and its sister Middle/High School were two of the first 114 schools across the country selected to receive an Apple ConnectED grant. The program, which was launched by the Obama Administration, is bringing millions of dollars in support and technology to underserved schools across America. In Wilder’s district, the median household income is just over $20,000 a year, and 100 percent of the students qualify for a free lunch. Less than half of the community’s households have an internet connection.

But things are different when kids get to school — every student has an iPad, every teacher has a MacBook and an iPad mini, and every classroom has an Apple TV and receives technical support. It’s just one of the programs that Apple funds to help teachers use technology to enable the students of today become the leaders of tomorrow.

At Wilder, it’s changing the way that educators reach their students, and turning the traditional model of what a classroom is supposed to look — and sound like — on its head. That’s because technology is allowing every student to learn at their own pace by choosing their own work and schedule. They don’t switch classrooms, they just switch the program they’re studying on their iPad.

For fifth-grade teacher Stephanie Bauer, that also means she can give each one of her students the attention they need and deserve, regardless of whether they’re working at, above, or below grade level. She also credits the technology with allowing her to get to know her students better too.

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