New tech comes to Hoover students

This fall, Hoover City School’s Engaged Learning Initiative will bring new digital learning devices to students.

“The Engaged Learning Initiative will allow my teachers to serve more as facilitators of personalized learning for students,” said Dr. Tamala Maddox, principal of Bumpus Middle School. “Because of this initiative, instruction and assignments can be tailored to meet the unique needs of each student.”

The project is an expansion of a small pilot project that took place during the 2011-2012 school year at Gwin and Green Valley elementary schools. In September, Nook tablets made by Barnes & Noble were distributed to students in select elementary and middle school classrooms, while seniors attending both Hoover and Spain Park high schools received Apple iPads. Apple and Barnes & Noble have both provided training and support for the digital devices.

The devices remain the property of Hoover City Schools and are assigned to students. If all goes well, plans call for the initiative to eventually provide each student in grades 3-12 a Nook or iPad by the 2013-2014 school year.

Overall, the initiative is designed to enrich the learning experience for students by allowing them to use web-based research and applications to problem solve, do homework and carry out general study in and out of the classroom. The devices will further individualize and differentiate instruction, allowing students to learn at their own paces and in different ways. In many respects, the devices will begin to take a lead role in terms of tasks traditionally accomplished through workbooks and textbooks.

“We are going to use technology to help us reach each learner and personalize his or her instruction to maximize each child’s potential,” said Brian Cain, principal of Simmons Middle School. “Technology is the 21st century version of the pencil, textbook and notebook all in one case that allies students the chance to study the world in a moment of time.”