A Visit to CCDS (Cincinnati Country Day School)

Last week I had the opportunity to spend a day observing and learning from the teachers at Cincinnati Country Day School. Several times a year they host a conference for teachers and administrators that want to learn more about 1-1 computer initiatives. Country Day has perhaps the most mature 1-1 (1 computer to 1 student) program in the country. Students in grades 5-12 have had their own laptops for going on 10 years. Last year they made the move from laptops to tablets. I was invited to attend the program somewhat by default….meaning no one else in the district wanted or could go. I hadn’t been to CCDS for about 12 years and I drive by it twice a day so I thought it might be fun to see what they were doing and even more fun to be off campus for a nice fall day.

Honestly my expectations weren’t all that great…because I have read some accounts of how other 1-1 environments aren’t they much different than a traditional classroom….except the kids have computers which has the potential to be a big distracter. There was even a district in upstate NY that cancelled their laptop program because it was seen as counterproductive to learning.

CCDS only has room for 30 people to attend the day and we are all pretty much crammed in a guest house they have on one side campus. We are crammed…but very comfortable. The great thing was that instead of talking about tablets, we were using the tablets. The day was masterfully planned and it was obvious they have done this many times before as it ran like a well-oiled machine. My favorite part of the day was the “dash and dart” sessions. Teachers literally busted into the room, hooked their tablet up to the projector, took a deep breath, and they let loose how they were using the tablets in their classroom. The teachers were so genuinely excited (even the 30+ year veteran) about the power of what they were doing in their classroom….and it was some powerful stuff. What really hit me about the day was that the teachers actually talked very little about the actual technology…rather they focused on the teaching and learning that was happening in their rooms….which is really what the whole idea about using technology is about. Yes, kids need to know how to use these tools for their future employment and schooling…but isn’t the teaching and learning a more immediate need? Of course it is.

Country Day has purchased a very powerful piece of software called DyKnow (http://www.dyknow.com/ ). I can’t do this product justice, but basically it allows teachers and students to share inked slides back and forth. So a student enters a classroom, logs in, and joins a teacher’s session. The student automatically receives the slides a teacher has prepared for the class. The teacher can continue to ink on the slides even when the students already have them. The students can also ink on the slide and submit to the teacher who can then look at the students work and even playback the slide from start to finish…so not only can they see the finished slide, they can see the ink going on the slide so a teacher can see where a student headed the wrong direction in a math problem. The software blew me away. At the conclusion of the day I asked their tech team how much the software cost. All he would say was that I needed to call the company. It was almost as if he had signed a non-disclosure agreement (not kidding). The most information I could get from him was….it is expensive.

I immediately went home determined to find a price (I didn’t) and see if there were comparable products. There are few other products (both open source..yeah!) that although they don’t have the same rich features still look worth considering….especially in our HS were there are some student tablets.

The University of Washington has a program under development called Classroom Presenter and the University of California at San Diego has a web-based app called Ubiquitous Presenter that is based on the Classroom Presenter app. I have downloaded both and have successfully played with both. Classroom Presenter won me over. If you would like to tinker with your own class, I would love to help you get started.

Download: Classroom Presenter