Our strategic plan, MVX, challenges us to provide “access to emerging technology as an interactive tool to collaborate, construct, and/or contextualize learning.” Mount Vernon has developed a school-wide strategy to provide age-appropriate access to technology in the classroom, where we support students as they learn how to engage with online resources, build new content, and utilize technology effectively.
MAKER, DESIGN, AND ENGINEERING
Mount Vernon learners have age-appropriate access to various Maker, Design and Engineering (MDE) technology to be able to design, create, fabricate, prototype and iterate a wide range of products and processes based on the projects they undertake.
DEVICE PROGRAM OVERVIEW
The School intentionally approaches technology integration based on developmental stages and learning opportunities.
PRESCHOOL
With our youngest learners, we foster curiosity through hands-on play. In the earliest years of learning, students’ classroom experiences include minimal screen time, intentionally. Teachers use classroom technology to document demonstrations of learning in addition to creating opportunities for reflection.
LOWER SCHOOL
Lower School instructors strive to build learners' educational foundations, curiosities, and passions, through whole- and small-group instruction . The use of technology during the formative years is carefully directed and monitored as we work hard to build critical knowledge, skills, and dispositions.
Lower School classrooms use iPads to enhance instruction. In Kindergarten through grade 2, each classroom has a set of iPads, which will empower learners to create content, practice foundational skills, and extend their learning with non-fiction resources and research. In grades 3-5 the School will implement a 1:1 iPad program so that each learner will have access to an assigned iPad to conduct research on the internet, use digital course materials and textbooks, post artifacts to their ePortfolios, collaborate and create via the Google Suite for Education, and interact with various educational applications -- all to reinforce skills taught in the classroom. All school-owned iPads in grades 3-5 remain at school. In grade 4, learners will begin to intentionally practice keyboarding skills. Grade 4-5 students incur an annual $100 technology fee.
MIDDLE SCHOOL
Our 1:1 iPad program continues in Grades 6-8. Middle School learners use iPads more independently to communicate, collaborate, create, and publish their work. Students continue using the Google Suite for Education, including email (to other Mount Vernon addresses only). Building on the foundations from Lower School, learners use iPads to capture demonstrations of learning, integrate fine arts throughout the curriculum, create new products with value and meaning, and develop core knowledge, skills, and dispositions. Using iPads, students can wander beyond the walls of the School, connect with experts in the field, and access a variety of resources to expand their understanding of the larger world. Grade 6-8 students incur an annual $150 technology fee.
UPPER SCHOOL
In the Upper School, learners use their devices independently as they regularly access the internet for research, use Google Suite apps for assignments and collaboration with peers and teachers, and interact with cloud-based learning tools.
In grades 9-12, the "Bring Your Own" laptop program allows families to purchase a device that is the right fit for their student. Providing flexibility for our families, this customized approach to computing empowers students to select the laptop that best suits his or her needs in and out of the School. This purchase can be made from any store or manufacturer.
Upper School families should consult these guidelines when purchasing a laptop for use at school.