The iPads are coming! The iPads are here!

Through a generous gift of the Trustees of Phillips Exeter Academy, full time faculty will begin their teaching year with an iPad2 in hand. About two thirds of them have already been picked up by faculty over the summer. The agenda for Faculty Week will include an iPad training session later this month to give all of our teachers a jumpstart on using these handy devices. In addition to the faculty devices, two sets of iPads will be circulated to classes this term to give teachers a chance to test the merits of the iPad in class and to give students a chance to put them through their paces as a course tool for texts, research and project creation. The Academy Library has also purchased eight iPads to use in the pursuit of bibliographic research. It will be great to see what this creative community does with such an innovative tool readily available. Check out the Exeter iPad cover below:

Summer Fun

Now that Summer is coming to a close (a moment that makes me simultaneously sad to see the daylight hours shortening and excited to see colleagues and students returning again soon), I've finally set aside a moment to write a post about how we began summer this year at the Academy: Tech Camp!

Formally called the Technology Workshop, "tech camp" was a three-day event, organized by a group of faculty and ITS staff chaired by Director of Studies Laura Marshall. The agenda included workshops taught or facilitated by our own faculty on topics including Skype and other video, Blogs and Wikis at School, iPad and Digital Readers, and Facebook and other social media. The series included a fascinating (both technically and with regard to content) Skype conference with W. Brian Arthur, author of The Nature of Technology: What it is and how it evolves. The culminating event was an open discussion on Harkness Teaching in the 21st Century, to which we invited via videoconference Howard Levin, Director of Educational Innovation and Informational Services at San Francisco's Convent and Stuart Hall Schools of the Sacred Heart. Mr. Levin will make a return appearance in person at our opening of school faculty workshops.

The workshop series came together quickly under Ms. Marshall's guidance, and through a significant amount of collegial collaboration at a very busy time of year by faculty who have been innovators in their use of emerging technologies. Susan Keeble, Eimer Page, Johathan Wang, Tom Seidenberg, Lundy Smith, Elena Gosalves-Blanco, Brian Sea, John Blackwell and I co-taught sessions, under the helpful support of ITS instructional tech staff Marilee Tuomanen and director Shelley Nason. It was GREAT to hear how colleagues used these tools, how enthused students have been about them, and to think about how they might be applied across the curriculum. And, of course, the rare opportunity to spend three days with faculty from various departments was priceless. Thanks to Kathleen Curwen (former Dean of Faculty) for conceptualizing this fun workshop. About 30 people participated in the workshop series this June.