Hamlin teachers and students use the iPad to:
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Promote student-centered learning, engagement, inquiry, and exploration
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Support the differentiated learning model
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Expand assessment opportunities
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Enhance critical thinking skills
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Develop digital citizenship and media fluency
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Allow for increased collaboration and group work
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Refine personal organization skills
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Foster creativity
Lower School students are introduced to a 1:1 iPad environment beginning in Kindergarten. Throughout Grades K-4, iPads are used to reinforce the basic, formative skills already taught through direct instruction. The girls work individually, with partners, and in small groups to explore educational apps, create multimedia content, and communicate what they have learned. The iPads not only increase engagement in the classroom, but also generate a learning environment that is expanded, individualized, and inherently collaborative. During regularly scheduled iPad classes, Lower School students explore the meaning of the Hamlin Creed through a digital lens.
The Middle School uses a combination of the Blackbaud K-12 Learning Management System and eBackpack to create a digital workflow that allows seamless collaboration between teachers and students. Beginning in Grade 5, students participate in digital citizenship and programming courses. Students learn effective communication, collaboration, idea synthesis, presentation, research and digital citizenship skills. In addition, students deepen their critical thinking skills by exploring apps that teach coding.
Hamlin remains committed to reviewing educational apps that support differentiated instruction, discipline-specific content, and a variety of learning strategies.