Lexington-Richland School District Five received a Technology Innovative Programs (TIPs) Award from the South Carolina Association for Educational Technology (SCAET).
The district’s Making (Healthy) Connections through Reading, Writing and Technology program at Chapin High School will be honored during the South Carolina Association for Educational Technology 2019 Award Ceremony and Luncheon in Greenville November 6-8.
“It is a great honor for Chapin High School to receive this recognition as it highlights the outstanding work that our Digital Integration Specialists and teachers are doing in preparing our students to think both computationally and critically,” said School District Five Coordinator of Instructional Technology Carol Lunsford.
This program is a collaborative effort between the Midlands Reading Consortium (MRC) initiative through the United Way of the Midlands coordinators, the Chapin High School Health Science teachers and students and the Digital Integration Specialist (DIS). The high school seniors mentor elementary students chosen to participate in the MRC. Students work together to create a printed storybook on a health-related topic that the elementary school students keep as a memento of their time together.
The DIS introduces the program to the high school students, explaining how the Shutterfly Book Creator site works, and promotes copyright, grammar, punctuation, etc. The teachers create a template for the project which includes project steps, guidelines and due dates. The high school students spend some time in the Health Science class uploading pictures from their phone and working on the book assembly at the Shutterfly site using their Chromebooks.
“The mission of Instructional Technology and the district’s i5 Initiative is to use technology to strengthen the growth of curriculum and competencies for work, citizenship and lifelong learning,” said Lunsford. “We truly focus on how digital tools can enhance teaching and learning. Through our graduate level classes at the School District Five Technology Training Center and the ongoing professional development that Digital Integration Specialists provide in their schools, it is our hope to continue providing opportunities for teachers to continue learning best practices in instructional technology integration.”
SCAET recognizes there are many outstanding programs and activities in the state that showcase innovative uses of technology in education. The TIPs Award was established in an effort to honor those best practices. This program acknowledges South Carolina schools or districts as having exhibited excellence in the integration of technology in education.
