Category Archives: for Parents

Almost 50% of school districts in Iowa are utilizing 1:1 mobile technology for student learning

11map

Google map showing the current 1:1 school district’s across Iowa.

This morning I received an email from AEA11’s Director of Technology, Lance Wilhelm, with an updated list of Iowa school district’s that are utilizing 1:1 mobile technology for student learning.  According to Wilhelm, “we are closing in on half of the districts in Iowa having 1:1 at some level or another. This is a remarkable investment, and a very different phenomenon from most other states where 1:1 is strong, because that is usually more of a top-down approach where the state provides the money directly for that purpose.”

Here’s the draft listing the currently known 1:1 deployments across Iowa.(Word Doc)  Wilhelm commented that it is a draft and he’s encouraging districts to contact him at lwilhelm@aea11.k12.ia.us to get their information updated.

Who is new to the list?
Ames Schools: Planning 9-12 deployment for fall 2013

Winterset: planning last roll out to grades 11-12, to complete full 7-12 deployment in fall 2013

Pella Schools: deploying grades 9-12 in fall of 2013

Denison Schools: deploying grades 6-12 in fall 2013

Melcher-Dalls: deploying fall 2013

What is the status of 1:1 in West Des Moines Schools?  We have a district-wide study team that is currently conducting visits and starting discussions >> see more at https://wdmtech.wordpress.com/11-study/

Featured on WordPress.com Education

wordpress

Our district’s tech blog was recently listed in two articles from WordPress.com:  Create an A+ Site with WordPress.com Classrooms  & Make the Grade: Classroom WordPress Sites   I’m excited to see WordPress extend their reach into classroom/educational usage.  They’ve even added new security features to allow teachers to select certain pages/posts to be password protected, which will be helpful for classroom lists and student directories.

Our district has been a huge advocate for WordPress – as we’re not only using WordPress for our district tech blog, as our entire district website (www.wdmcs.org) is also a WordPress site.  In addition, we’re working our way through each of our fourteen schools to shift them to the usage of WordPress as well.  Check out our school web sites that are now using WordPress:  Clive Elementary, Westridge Elementary, Jordan Creek Elementary