Review/Update Winter 2013 - Lake Forest Academy

An iCon conference attendee records a video of LFA’s Laptop Orchestra performance.Director of Purchasing Tom Wenman offers a workshop to school administrators fromarea schools on how LFA handled the complexities of implementing the iPad Programfrom a financial and managerial standpoint.On February 25 more than 100 Chicago-area educators gatheredon LFA’s campus to take part in iCon, a conference onmobile technology in education. Hosted by the Academy,iCon was the answer to the innumerable requests receivedby LFA teachers and administrators to talk about how theschool incorporates mobile technology into the classroom,something it’s been doing increasingly since the launch of theiPad program in 2011.At institutions of higher education such as NorthwesternUniversity, teachers have taught individual classes using iPadswith great success. LFA has scaled up those successes andapplied the use of mobile technology across the curriculum,from math class to music class.“We were lucky enough to be on the forefront of this trend,”Director of Academy Technology Grier Carson explains. “Wewere able to be the experimenters, and now we want to shareour experience—both the successes and the failures—withother schools.”The day consisted of presentations from Head of School JohnStrudwick, Dean of Faculty & Curriculum Phil Schwartz,Director of Information Technology Dave Aykroid and Carson.Conference attendees were entertained by a performancefrom the LFA Laptop Orchestra.“There’s a paradigm shift occurring...”Panelists answer questions from the audience on LFA’s iPad program. Panelistsinclude (from l to r) History Instructor Stefanie Bator, Director of Academic TechnologyGrier Carson, Director of Information Technology Dave Aykroid, Matt Johnson ’13, andPalmer Taylor ’13.Five years ago, LFA established an electronic music program,which included the formation of a laptop orchestra. Followingin the footsteps of premier universities, LFA was the firsthigh school in the country, perhaps the world, to offer its studentsa formal outlet to write and perform electronic music.Today, musicians in the Laptop Orchestra use the iPad 2 astheir primary instrument.Following lunch, participants broke out into subject-specificworkshops led by LFA teachers. Each session focused onconcrete strategies for incorporating these technologies intolearning.“There’s a paradigm shift occurring in the world of personalcomputing that mirrors the shift in education from teachercenteredinstruction to interactive collaboration—the factthat iCon was so well-received proves we’re not the only onesout there thinking about this!” Carson says. n4 Review Winter 2013 8 Click: www.lfanet.org