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S.I. High School Moves all Classwork to iPads

By Nicholas Rizzi | November 23, 2014 7:54pm
  Father Michael Reilly, principal at St. Joseph's by-the-Sea, spearheaded the school's switch iPads.
St. Joseph by-the-Sea High School's Principal Fr. Michael Reilly
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HUGUENOT — A Staten Island high school eliminated the "dog ate my homework" excuse this year.

St. Joseph by-the-Sea High School moved all classwork, homework, textbooks and the majority of tests from pen and paper to iPads.

The push, which the Rev. Michael Reilly calls a "seamless online learning environment," relies on programs like Blackboard, Notability and more, so students only have to carry around a tablet in school.

"Sometimes people can make this out to be gimmicky, like ‘isn't it cool we use an iPad’ and that becomes the important thing," said Reilly, the school's principal. "It's really not the important thing. The important thing is the workflow and the productivity that the kids get out of it."

Each student gets an iPad Air from the school — with a case and a stylus — that comes loaded with all their textbooks and applications they need for the year, said Reilly, who also teaches two classes.

Using an app called ExamSoft, students take the majority of their tests — except for some math exams — and the grades automatically get posted to Blackboard, a program used in colleges around the country.

Assignments and PowerPoint presentations shown in class are also on Blackboard, and kids can download them right into Notability to markup during class, said Reilly, who has been principal for six years.

The school tested using iPads for freshmen and sophomores last year, and rolled it out to the whole school in September.

If a student breaks their iPad, they get a new one for a fee and all of their notes are backed up so they never miss a beat.

"This is just so much more productive," Reilly said. "Everything you need for school is right here."

What made you decide to switch the classwork entirely to iPads?

The first thing we did is Blackboard. Blackboard is the dog, the iPad is the tail.

Blackboard is what really appealed to me. A number of years ago, we explored the idea of an online course with St. John's [University], and I was sitting in the room with a professor who was explaining to the kids how they would do it. I said to my technology guy, "that Blackboard, how do we get that?"

The great thing about the iPad is that it makes Blackboard accessible all day long in the building. The teachers can put their notes on Blackboard, the students can instantly open them up right into their notebooks and take notes right on the page.

How has using the iPads made students more productive?

They can access any material whatsoever. They see what's on the board, they can enlarge it, they can write their own notes right on the page and as soon as they write the notes, it's backed up.

Now the teacher can talk about the notes, discuss the notes, [students] don’t have to be anxious because they have them. They can listen to what you’re saying and they can jot comments about what you're saying down. The kid's school time is more productive time. They’re getting more accomplished.

This year I’m way ahead of what I was doing last year and it's so much less aggravation for the kids.

How does using ExamSoft to take tests on the iPads work?

The kids download the test beforehand. They can’t get at it because it needs a password, so when I walk into the classroom the only thing I have to do is tell them what the password is.

The kids get their grades right away, and the parents can go on Blackboard and see their grades within minutes of the kids taking the test.

If they navigate away from the the test for any reason, the entire test shuts down. They have to show the teacher to get a new password.

Aside from technology, what other changes have you made since you started as principal?

When we hire, we don't look for education degrees, the last thing I want is someone with an education degree because they don't know anything. I try to hire people who have degrees in the actual field.

We have a woman that has a Ph. D in neuroscience. We have a man who has a Ph. D in computer science and mathematics. They're able to bring so much more to the table.

What's the next steps for the technology in the school?

This learning environment is stable, so we're engaged in ongoing research on new products to see if we can start feathering them in as they come out. As far as the workflow, it doesn't really need any adjustments, the workflow is really good. We're just hoping as technology develops we'll be able to integrate newer things.