An Overview of Gillispie’s Integrated Digital Curriculum (IDC)
For nearly eight years, The Gillispie School has been “ahead of the wave” that is changing the face of elementary education in this country. In the fall of 2003 we became one of the first elementary schools in California to implement a one-to-one laptop initiative by giving a notebook computer to every teacher and every third through sixth grade student. Using the latest digital technologies to create interactive projects, presentations, mind-maps, creative writings, and to enhance research and scientific investigations, learning has never been so exciting.
The primary objective of the IDC program has been to use technology to enhance and enrich a traditional yet holistic curriculum by eliminating barriers such as student access to technology, lack of professional training and limited technology support. With interactive Smart Boards in most of the classrooms, the program has expanded curriculum in the areas of social studies, language arts, science, art and music by adding new curricular components such as digital music composition, guided Internet research, digital photography and video, enhanced scientific investigation tools, as well as various global collaboration projects with schools from all over the world. By doing all of this in a one-to-one wireless computing environment, we are able to dynamically integrate technology seamlessly into the traditional curriculum.
Some examples are as follows:
- Digital photos highlighting class projects emailed to parents.
- Computer project gallery on our website highlighting building blocks of digital interactive projects from grade level to grade level. Project Gallery
- Digital “midi” music composition
- Digital books published by various classes
- Scientific method documented on video in science projects
- Measurable Keyboarding Benchmarks
- Global positioning tracking via computer
- Informational literacy unit developed
The students graduating from Gillispie will be comfortable using technology to learn, create, present, and communicate effectively and efficiently.
Click above to see the video from Channel 8′s Cool School of the Week.
The Gillispie School is in a partnership with Apple Computers as a “Lighthouse” School. Each third through sixth grade student has a Apple MacBook computer assigned for each academic year. The laptops have a wireless connection to the Internet and the school network.
Gillispie is a founding member of The Coalition of Lighthouse Schools. Every year the Lighthouse Schools come together for the annual iSummit Conference; a conference dedicated to a community of Independent and Charter Schools utilizing one-to -one computing to empower students and teachers to lead in the 21st Century.The annual iSummit’2010 conference in Atlanta, GA was a huge success. We are looking forward to the iSummit 2011 in Nashville, TN, June 22 to 24.
Some of Gillispie’s student projects are featured on the MediaWorks website. Visit site.
Children in Early Kindergarten through Grade Two learn basic computer operations on Apple iBooks. Computers are used with small groups to enhance curricular areas in the classroom.
The Technology staff works with the teachers to find ways of using the technology within their existing curriculum. Computers are tools to support learning and teaching; technology is useful for research, presentations, writing, graphic arts, multimedia projects and much more.
