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iLearn

Photo of Faculty accepting the ADS recognition

Orangewood is educating our students for the future and beyond.
 It is our goal to help students gain deep content mastery as well as develop a broad range of creative and soft skills so they can be productive and prosperous Christian Leaders. 

These Skills include the 4 C's:

  • Critical thinking
  • Communication
  • Collaboration
  • Creative problem-solving

Our iLearn@OCS technology initiative will provide the tools the "iGeneration" needs to obtain these skills (4 C's) while ensuring our device strategy is:

  • Consistent
  • Reliable
  • Safe

iLearn@OCS Initiative

Today's students view the world through a different lens.  They have to navigate digital Babylon too many times on their own.  Their brains make connections to content differently than what we may have experienced in the classroom.  We can't turn off "their channel" when they enter our school building.  Instead, we need to keep them "tuned in" and engaged with the wonderful learning experiences our teachers offer.

The iLearn@OCS initiative will allow our students to excel at the most demanding curriculum while also being safe.

 

Why do we need iPads? Consistency.

Before Orangewood made the decision to go 1-1 iPads, managing over 9 different devices from K4-12th grade classrooms caused teacher management challenges and major loss of class time for students.  A BYOD policy led to content control issues and gave students several options to bypass any safety measures. Standardizing on iPads has streamlined technology integration, ensured equitable access to creative tools, and enhance personalized learning. School-issued iPads allows for secure testing environments, streamlined app distribution, and prevent installation of academically inappropriate software, fostering creativity and addressing equity concerns while supporting the consistency, reliability, and safety strategy of the iLearn@OCS program.

 

Why do we need iPads? Reliability.

The BYOD program led to ongoing hardware and software issues for students and families.   When the device eventually breaks, parents are then challenged with, “How do I fix the issue? Where do I take the device to be fixed? When can we fit this into our schedule?  Average device repair times range from two to four weeks and during this time students are without a device and experience a disadvantage with their studies. Switching to school-issued iPads has streamlined support, provided quick device replacements, and offers AppleCare Plus coverage, ensuring minimal disruption to learning when the student device breaks. AppleCare Plus for Schools allows each iPad (and/or pencil) up to 2 repair incidents in a calendar year.  Because iPad comes with a reliable 10-hour battery life, students can focus on their studies without worrying about charging.

 

Why do we need iPads? Safety.

When the device is owned by Orangewood, we have access to special tools specifically made for institutions.  Apple School Manager (ASM) is one such tool that allows the school to issue each student an Apple ID that has no purchasing power in the App Store but comes with 200Gb of iCloud storage free.  Orangewood is also able to place a content filter on the device itself, protecting the iPad 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  So if a student travels to Starbucks, McDonalds, their friend's house or even home, the device will have the same content filter on it as it does at school.  The goal here is giving parents peace of mind knowing the device is always being filtered. 

In order to address these needs while also providing flexibility for us to grow and change, we are adopting the National Association of Independent Schools' (NAIS) framework for innovation: "Magnetic Mountain."  In the pictorial representation below, you can track our "journey through innovation" here at Orangewood and where we will be "ascending" in the future. 

 

Our Promise

Orangewood's goal is that parents and students feel properly equipped and safe on their devices at all times.  We want to ensure all of our students have the same access to amazing technology.  We believe that at our core, we are all creators and need the very best tools to express our mastery of content in many different forms.  Orangewood believes our iLearn@OCS initiative will bring excitement and joy to the classroom for both teachers and students.

Finally, we want to make the promise to all of our parents and students that our devices are consistent, reliable and most importantly safe 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Read the Gallup report on the impact of creativity and technology in learning