Math and Macs

In September of 2011, kits of Mac Laptops were provided to Grade 6 classes across the Toronto District School Board with the purpose of:

Increasing student engagement and achievement through the increased use of technology with an emphasis on the math curriculum.

3700 Mac laptops were provided to 325 schools with 481 wireless access points. Professional learning sessions were offered to over 600 teachers across the TDSB.

Why the Change?

  • Change in instruction

  • Laptops in classrooms – at the point of instruction – not labs

  • Available when and as needed

  • Wireless access

  • Desktop computers to mobile devices


Professional Learning Opportunities

Teachers involved in the Mobile Computing Strategy attended an initial Professional Learning session where they learned about how to use the Macs and how to use them to support the Grade 6 Math curriculum.

Resource package for teachers can be found here.

Demonstration Classrooms

We worked in collaboration with many partners to continue to offer Professional Learning sessions to teachers. Partnerships included:

  • Mathematics Instructional Leaders

  • Family of Schools Numeracy Coaches

  • Model School for Inner City Coaches

  • Apple Canada

  • Field Services, Media Services

Impact

Over 40 Demonstration Classrooms were offered for teachers to attend and teachers, Math coaches, and Model schools coaches created and tested over sixty 3-Part Math Lessons

Nicole Hoang, one of our MCS teachers, shared how she integrates technology into her Mathematics program with her grade 5/6 students at Joyce P.S.

Ultimately, this project challenged the way we look at and distribute technology into our schools. This was truly the beginning of a move away from traditional labs of computers to mobile technologies – technology at the point of instruction – in the classroom and in the hands of students.

This project was shared at the 2012 ECOO Conference.