VB school embraces new technology

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) - Students in Beach schools are utilizing technology in the classroom with iPads and smartphones to enhance their educational experience.

Students studying American Sign Language at Ocean Lakes High School use their phones and iPads to perfect their technique by filming each other while signing.

"It's benefited me to start learning how to use it more and to start getting into it. It's benefited me especially in this class to get my confidence up signing in front of a camera," senior at Ocean Lakes Maggie Reed said.

"It's helpful because they can't always have laptops in the room and if you need to look up something you can just use your phone," Ocean Lakes senior Summer Gamez said.

Friday, they signed to one another what their homes look like while a classmate recorded the exercise.

"They can watch themselves and go, 'Oh! I signed it that way?' and then they know, it's a self assessment so they can make a modification and I think it's a big benefit for them in their ability to be able to improve their communication.," says American Sign Language teacher Lynn Steinberg.

Steinberg says she has noticed a difference in students retaining information and handing in assignments.

"They have improved with their homework," Steinberg said. "They are turning it in more consistently because they can turn their homework in through this device through Edmodo. They can post a message there. I can get information from them from my phone at home and then they can understand what it is they're doing and then they can make a modification in what they're doing and then they can turn the homework on time. "

Edmodo is the free app Ocean Lakes uses to link students electronically to their classes. Reed is one of the students without an electronic device and while she says the new policy does benefit her, she also feels left out at times.

"It makes me feel obligated that I have to go out and buy an iPod with a camera on it or a smart phone," Reed said.

Principal Cheryl Askew says that is something the school wants to change.

"We are very fortunate in the city of Virginia Beach as well as this school in particular that we have a lot of technology resources available to us," Askew said. "We have a lot of laptops on carts that are placed throughout the building. We have multiple sets of iPads that are available for checkout, now do we have enough for every student? No, but we're working on that."

Askew went on to say, "I always felt like when [the students] entered the schoolhouse we were taking their tools away from them and we were taking what they were intuitively used to doing."

She doesn't feel that way anymore.

"What I think we're seeing is all students that are more engaged in what's going on." Askew said. "Maybe they didn't like the class content, but now that they're able to bring in their own devices and use devices, it engages them and they're getting more out of the class content than they would perhaps without that."

Band director Jonathan Schiffler also notices a big change.

"We go a lot further than just playing the music, but the understanding of the who, what, where, when and why."

Schiffler says he has been pleased with the progress he has seen in his classroom.

"I think it's a good opportunity to start embracing the technology that we have and using it to our advantage rather than pretending it doesn't exist," Schiffler said. "It holds students back to not use it. They have a whole world of information at their fingertips and why not use it if it's there?"

The school has a private Wi-Fi connection the students are required to switch to when they enter the building.  The school's Wi-Fi blocks websites like Facebook and Twitter. 

Teachers also pay close attention to make sure students are not texting.  If a student is caught improperly using their phone or iPad at school, they risk losing their device for 24 hours and their parents have to pick up the device.