Hillcrest Christian College is committed to providing the best possible learning opportunities for our students – and we believe that embedding ICT within our whole school strategy will move us towards achieving this goal. New to the school this year, I’m looking forward to leading Hillcrest through its journey to digital transformation – where the choice of device is key.
At Hillcrest, we were the first school in Australia to adopt the new Surface 3 in our classrooms.
Around four years ago we had a pure BYOD program at the school, however we’ve recently begun moving towards a Surface mandated one-to-one program. We have commenced our three year plan to rebuild the entire school, where the ultimate goal is to embed 21st century learning strategies within teaching, and as part of this we want to ensure that teachers and students are equipped with the ultimate device for learning.
“We have commenced our three year plan to rebuild the entire school, where the ultimate goal is to embed 21st century learning strategies within teaching…”
There is a school of thought that the device doesn’t matter in education; connecting to the internet using a device with a keyboard is “good enough.” I don’t subscribe to this thinking – numerous studies now show that a digital pen, along with touch and keyboard in one device, promotes greater understanding of complex ideas and better understanding and recall of content.
We are currently using 250 Surface devices, including over 100 Surface 3s and 100 Surface Pros but we hope to expand our number of devices considerably over the next couple of years for students at all year levels. Also, to further integrate Surface devices into class activities, we have enabled all classrooms with wireless projection. This allows staff a greater flexibility and mobility for teaching and for student presentations.
Our staff are now running training classes three times a week with up to 30 teachers in each class – providing them with the opportunity to learn benefits of the device such as annotating PowerPoint presentations, developing complex ideas using Pen, brainstorming notes, and real time feedback using OneNote.
“We’re excited about where this journey will take us, and we are passionate about Hillcrest becoming known for its innovative digital learning environment and setting standards around the world in teaching.”
I’m a strong believer that the learning environment has the potential to go beyond the classroom – and the Surface enables us to do this. We don’t want our students to be confined to the four walls of the classroom. We want to get them outside, and get them engaged, so they can be enthusiastic about learning.
We’re excited about where this journey will take us, and we are passionate about Hillcrest becoming known for its innovative digital learning environment and setting standards around the world in teaching and learning. The College has established a strong reputation in many areas over the last 32 years and we hope to really build on this reputation, to integrate technology in the classroom like never before.
