Deerfield Elementary School LMCs Now Utilizing iPad Grant

DEERFIELD, Illinois – Thanks to a grant from the Deerfield Education Foundation, a trip to the library has a whole new meaning for Deerfield elementary school students this spring.

Earlier in the school year, the Deerfield Education Foundation (www.DeerfieldEducationFoundation.org) awarded a grant of nearly $70,000 to outfit all four elementary school Library Media Centers with a full set of 25 iPads to empower research activities, group learning, artifact production, eBook creation, and audio and camera features to extend learning with multimedia. The addition of LMCdedicated iPads offers students 1:1 level of access to the widest range of educational technology within the LMC.

“The iPads let us do a lot more in terms of extending what the students learn,” said Rich Connell, the Library Media Center Director at Wilmot Elementary School. “The fifth grade classes used an app called Book Creator that allows them to take what they normally would do as a PowerPoint presentation or a poster and create an e-publication. What I notice is that they put a lot more thought into its composition and design as they’re working with it. They just really love the technology.

“We have a fourth grade class that works with a first grade class – they’re buddies. They did some planning and they’re using an app called Puppet Pals, which is another app that we have. They’re going to make little puppet plays with their first grade buddies. So you’re getting more authentic learning where the fourth graders are going to be teaching the first graders how to use the app – and they’ll be working together for a collaborative activity. There are so many more possibilities for us to do things with the technology. We’re just barely touching the surface. It’s a lot of fun.”

For Connell and the other elementary school LMC directors – Kate Schippers (Kipling), Carrie Light (South Park) and Kathy Kerner (Walden) – the vision for the use of the iPads in the elementary schools is for the librarian, classroom teacher, and technology coach to work collaboratively to create state-of-the-art projects that reflect students’ knowledge across the curriculum. Students also use the iPads to search for library materials and to read electronic books.

“On Showcase Night (April 24), we’ll have all the iPads set up in here so the kids can come down and show them to their parents,” Connell said.

The Deerfield Education Foundation is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization made up of community members and educators working together to raise money for the benefit of students in Deerfield Public School District 109. To learn more, please visit www.DeerfieldEducationFoundation.org.