Click here to see a video feature of the roll-out.
Oak Ridge Schools’ digital initiative, Access Oak Ridge continued with a new launch in the week of October 17th to include district-issued devices to increase opportunities for every 9th and 10th grade student at Oak Ridge High School. Through our Access Oak Ridge digital one-to-one initiative, our vision is to empower all Oak Ridge students with equitable access to digital learning opportunities; to innovate, design, collaborate, and ultimately succeed in local and global communities of the future. This initiative is geared toward increasing opportunities for creativity and out-of-the-box problem solving. In a 1:1 environment, teachers can serve as collaborative facilitators in an atmosphere of timely information gathering and authentic problem-based learning.
The initiative also brings student-centered inquiry to classrooms through access to a vast array of learning content that is up-to-date and not attainable through the limitations of printed texts. We are working continuously to also add our printed resources as soft copies on student devices, specifically adding as many as we can in downloaded file formats that are available even when students are not in a WiFi zone. For this purpose, the district has created textbook folders on the home screen of every issued device. The folder contains digital content for a wide variety of subject areas. As this collection grows, the files are automatically updated to student devices when individuals are logged into the school network.
We believe putting the right tools for technology in the hands of students enables them to explore content with greater depth and breadth, and allows for new learning tasks that were previously inconceivable. Providing a digital device for every student levels the playing field and offers opportunities to access a wealth of global information that is not locally accessible.
