By Suzanne Schmidt
Staff Writer
In most schools, if a teacher sees a student using a cell phone, it is taken away.
At Wiregrass Ranch High School, students are using their iPhones and iPod touches in class to take notes, complete classroom assignments and teachers are using them as well.
Samuel Parisi is the instructional technology specialist at Wiregrass. Since the beginning of the school year, he has been working on this program. It is his job to coordinate technology into the curriculum at the school.
“We have always been a tech-savvy school,” Parisi said. “It is our focus to use technology to enhance our students’ achievements. When you look at college campuses, some still use notebooks but many use laptops. I was wondering why there is such a difference between high school and college. It is just logical to use the hand-held devices because many of the kids have them already.”
The school was already registering students’ laptops and letting them in class, so the next logical step was the iPhones and iPods. More than 38 percent of the students in the school own an iPhone or iPod and many others own some form of smart phone.
“There are so many educational applications out there for it,” Parisi said. “They have them for everything like math, science, English and history. We want this to be valid for teachers as well as the students.”
Almost 100 teachers are blogging and putting information for their classes on the school’s Web site.
“Students can go to the blogs to listen to the lectures from class, download worksheets and find out what happened in class,” Parisi said. “The blogs have been around since the school opened. It made it easy for us to turn around and use the hand-held devices. We are taking a lot of stuff that was already in place and trying to put it down into the palm of your hand.”
The school is also using the hand-held devices for keeping track of locker assignments, walk-through’s and tardy records.
“The great thing about mobile technology is you are able to have information on anything and anyplace anywhere,” Parisi said. “I can do an observation on a teacher’s class and just input all the information into the device.”
Sophomore Angelica Mendoza, 16, said she likes that she can use her iPhone in class.
“I like to use it take notes,” Mendoza said. “I can type much faster than I can write. I think it is cool because now I don’t have to worry about my teacher seeing it and taking it away.”
The teachers’ blogs are also helping Mendoza to be a better student.
