By Jim Davis - Florida Catholic
Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO
Richard Jean, principal at Archbishop Edward McCarthy High School, speaks after the school was presented the Distinguished School award by Apple for its one-to-one iPad program, the first in the archdiocese. At left is Donald Edwards, associate superintendent of schools for the archdiocese, and Father Brendan Dalton, president and supervising principal of McCarthy High.
Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO
Archbishop Edward McCarthy High School Principal Richard Jean, center, watches as students break ground for a new "21st Century classroom," a new flexible 8,000 square foot learning space that will feature movable walls which can transform five separate classrooms into one large learning space. The groundbreaking took place on the same day the school received the Apple Distinguished School award for its use of iPads throughout the school.
This month was radically different: Students strolled around the school, many with hands free of everything but Apple iPads.
The tablet computers, as large as a sheet of paper and thin as a fashion magazine, have become universal tools at the school: for notes, research, teaching, grading papers and yes, storing books.
"I�ve got six textbooks and my environmental science labs in here," junior Bob Aaron said of his iPad. "And it's easy to organize. You can personalize it, make it yours."
That tech-savvy approach is what prompted the Apple company to name McCarthy High an Apple Distinguished School, an honor bestowed at a ceremony Feb. 8. The double-header day also featured a groundbreaking for a versatile new room dubbed the "21st Century Classroom."
The 1,800 iPads � for staff and teachers as well as students � signal a basic shift of attitude at the school, spearheaded by Principal Richard P. Jean.
"The iPad is a living, breathing organism," Jean said before the award ceremony. "It becomes part of your life. We're fostering a culture of technology."
How effective are iPads? Enough to raise grades, science teacher Monica Arango said. When she went from using flash cards to a flash card app, or application program, grades rose by 10 percent, she said.
And effective enough to shorten research times. Students can read more than 95 percent of the school library's volumes right from their iPads. For the rest, they can access catalogue files before coming to the library, finding the right books faster.
English teacher Faith Gross noted how students can see a word definition just by touching it on an iPad. "They have the world at their fingertips, in the classroom," Gross said.
In her math classroom, instructor Melissa Chriswisser showed how her iPad syncs with an overhead flat screen via the Apple TV system. She calls up prepared text and writes notes on it � all while walking around the classroom.
"From a teaching standpoint, this is way better," Chriswisser said. "I'm no longer restricted to the podium. I can watch what the students are doing and see if they're getting it."
She can then erase the material, or she can post it to a centralized database. Students who need to review it can then call it up from home.
At the school gym, the 1,500 students, plus staff and faculty, witnessed the brief award ceremony. Apple representatives presented school leaders with a plaque bearing a silver Apple logo, to cheers and applause.
Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO
Richard Jean, principal at Archbishop Edward McCarthy High School, left, receives the Apple Distinguished School award from the school's president and supervising principal, Father Brendan Dalton, as Donald Edwards, associate superintendent of schools for the archdiocese, looks on. McCarthy High received the award in recognition of its one-to-one iPad program, the first in the archdiocese.
Father Brendan Dalton, supervising principal for McCarthy High, read a blessing and sprinkled holy water onto a patch of ground. Then students, teachers and administrators took turns posing for photos while wearing white hard hats and gripping two gold-painted shovels.
In an interview, Father Dalton, 69, reflected on the explosion of information technology.
"Knowledge is doubling every six days," he said. "I'm delighted for the kids. They have opportunities that we never had as kids."
Donald Edwards, associate superintendent for the archdiocese's schools, agreed. He even quoted Jesus � "No one puts new wine into old wineskins" � as a way of saying that new knowledge requires new ways of sharing it.
"All facets of our existence are changing because of technology � business, industry, healthcare, education � and the Church has to change as well," Edwards said. "With technology, you don�t just consume knowledge. You create and invent knowledge."
McCarthy High uses technology in still other ways. Some computers with touch screens help students learn Web design. Other computers let them learn graphic arts.
iPads also help the school's four security officers. Bill Nesselt showed how his tablet can monitor 22 of the campus's 108 cameras at a time.
"We can be anywhere on campus and be all over campus," Nesselt said.
Backing up the devices is a connection to FPL FiberNet, an Internet service provider. The hookup runs five times faster than cable TV, said Joe Morano, director of technology at McCarthy High.
The school charges $1,000 for each student's gear, including the iPad, a case, a basic set of apps, computer insurance and maintenance for the wireless system. Parents may divide the price by the number of years their student is at McCarthy High. On graduation, the student keeps the machine. The arrangement lets students take the devices home, rather than leave them at school.
The casual integration of the iPad into students� lives showed clearly during a visit to the school library, redubbed the iLounge. Even long after school, students could be seen relaxing on the red, orange and patterned chairs and couches, blogging, playing games or listening to music.
"They are the natives in their world, and we are the tourists," Principal Jean said.
It's all a far cry from three years ago, when the school had spotty Internet access and teachers relied on devices like overhead projectors. To find out how to change, Jean began researching and visiting schools around the nation.
To convince McCarthy High's teachers, he tried two tactics. One was to argue that the iPads would ease teachers� existing tasks, like replacing a stack of test papers to grade at home. He also gave the teachers the devices to use as they wished: scheduling, banking, even vacation photos.
Some teachers were more phobic than others.
"I felt dread, I got the sweats" when Jean announced the impending change, said religion teacher Anthony Luongo. "My computer has always baffled me, and oh, God, now I was going to have to use an iPad."
English teacher Maria Gandarillas feared she couldn�t make the transition from books to tablet. "I�ve been teaching for 23 years, and I was afraid of change," she confessed.
Luongo's attitude began to change when he found he could show videos from YouTube and the History Channel to students via Apple TV. He also reads textbooks and email on his iPad. His new attitude: "If it works, it's great."
For Gandarillas, the change of heart came when she taught the classic novel "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens. When she got to the part where the characters cross the English Channel, she was able to show a map of the channel on the large overhead TV.
"It's like giving a play in the classroom," Gandarillas said. "I learned how wonderful (technology) could be."
Which of the 750,000 or so apps to use, of course, can be challenging. Monica Arango recently spent a Tuesday trying out 12 apps � and ended up using none of them.
"It's not only about learning a subject," she said. "It's about learning a subject and technology."
"What�s new today is old tomorrow," said Gandarillas. "We�ve got to keep up."
Photographer: FILE PHOTO
Students at Archbishop Edward McCarthy High School showed off their iPads when they first received them, in August 2011. The school was the first in the archdiocese to give one out to every student.
