Erin Walker roamed around her social studies classroom on a recent morning, pausing occasionally to help students find information or answer questions as they played "Fantasy Supreme Court."
Laptop cords crisscrossed the floor. Walker's law students, some with headphones in their ears, focused on their computer screens, researching a case to determine how they'd decide the matter.
Requirements for the assignment were posted in a Google Doc. When finished, students would post their decisions on the class wiki.
Central York School District has always had technology available, said Walker, a social studies teacher at the high school. But in the past, she may have had to plan a lesson and then hope she could procure the laptop cart for three days to do it.
"Now our biggest concern is, are there enough outlets? Did everyone bring their chargers?" she said, noting her room's been rearranged to accommodate the technology.
Many students have more technology in their hands now, whether the school gave it to them or allowed them to bring it from home. And schools and teachers are working to make sure it's being used to enhance their classrooms.
Meeting student needs
Last year, Central York piloted iPads for every freshman. This year, the high school gave all students some kind of device, said Carol Roth, an instructional technology coach. Freshmen and sophomores have iPads, and the district had enough Apple laptops to give one to each junior and senior.
The devices go through a school filter whether students have them at home or in school, and restricted sites might vary depending on the time of day. For example, Facebook is blocked during the day but might be available after hours, Roth said.
Lisa Turner, a high school English teacher, said the technology helps her more easily adapt instruction for students' different needs.
On a recent day, her 21st Century Literacy Skills students worked on research projects using their iPads. They had several options for what form it would take: a blog, a newsletter, or a website, for example.
She can use My Big Campus, which students described as a sort of Facebook for schools, to add videos or articles for the students to access or discuss. They're so used to using the iPads that a student asked why she was handing something out on paper one day, she said.
It's been pretty seamless, she said, though students aren't necessarily using them 100 percent of the time.
Professional development is critical, she said, and it's sometimes a matter of trying new things.
"You have to be a risk-taker," Turner said.
Walker said it's been an adjustment but it came pretty naturally to her. She was comfortable with technology anyway, and has had "tons" of professional development. She took a graduate class on using iPads in the classroom, and learned about different kinds of apps and programs to use in her classes.
While they're not using their devices all day every day, it has helped her take lessons a step deeper and help students learn ways to find information.
Her lesson plans "have become more inquiry-based and student-centered," she said. The students are more responsible for guiding their own learning, she said. She acts as facilitator, helping them find their own conclusions, rather than telling them.
Hanover High School started a 1:1 program last school year, giving each student a Chromebook in January, at a cost of around $250 each.
Principal Joel Hain said there have been district-wide professional development sessions focused on technology, and he's hoping to revamp regular "Tech Tuesday" sessions to have the different high school departments share things they've done that worked or didn't.
Hanover science teacher Jason Suter said he was instantly sold on Chromebooks when he piloted them in his class. As laptops, they don't require quite the shift that a tablet might. But they're also up and running in a matter of seconds.
Previously, he said, it could take forever to get all students up and running with a cart of laptops. Now, he can tell kids to pull up the Socrative app, which turns any device into a student-response system, give them a question and see a graph showing how they answered.
Suter said he's taught graduate courses on using the Chromebook in classrooms. It only takes five minutes to show someone how to use the Chromebook, he said, but the bigger thing is learning how to incorporate it into the classroom.
"What can we do now that we couldn't do before?" he said.
Now that his students have Chromebooks, he's made videos of what he once would have taught as lecture. It allows kids to move at their own pace and it's freed him up to work individually with students.
"I really do think it's becoming more and more of a necessity," he said of the technology. "If we want to do those things like personalized learning ... we have to have the tools to do it."
Teaching the teachers
At Central, Roth works with teachers at the middle and high schools to help them find ways to integrate technology into their classes. Previously, training was focused on helping teachers learn how to use particular programs, she said. But now it's more about focusing on the content they're teaching and what tools are available to help with that.
"We talk a lot about making the tool invisible," Roth said.
Roth said there are so many options that it could be difficult for teachers to keep up. They might ask her about one app or program or she might join in a class to see how something works. Now that every single person in the high school has a device, she said, it's increased their needs and requests.
Teachers have a lot of collaboration time built into their schedule, so they can help each other out. Roth might host an all-day session in the library, so teachers can pop in when they have time.
South Eastern School District is in the second year of allowing students at South Eastern Middle School-East, which has seventh- and eighth-grades, to bring their own electronic devices, and the high school just started allowing it, said district Supt. Rona Kaufmann. Several seventh- and eighth-grade classrooms are piloting sets of Chromebooks, too, she said, in hopes that school can move to a 1:1 Chromebook program there next year and expand it to the high school in the future.
Teachers have had to change their mindsets, she said, from teaching students how to use a device to teaching them how to access information through it. She thinks teachers are all at different places in terms of their comfort with technology or their willingness to try things out.
Some teachers are designing lessons to have students use their Chromebooks to access resources, complete assignments and submit them online. Others are experimenting with using them in groups.
"Teachers are exploring, students are exploring," she said.
Apps in class
Here's a look at a few apps and programs that some York County educators said are being used in classrooms.
My Big Campus: A site where teachers can post assignments or resources, classes can have discussions, and more. www.mybigcampus.com
Moodle: A learning management system where teachers can post resources for students, post assignments or have students participate in discussions, for example. www.moodle.org
Socrative: An app that turns laptops, smartphones or other devices into student-response systems. www.socrative.com Many teachers and students also use programs like Google Docs, Notability, Keynote and iMovie, according to Carol Roth, an instructional technology coach with the Central York School District.