Rockport Public Schools (RPS) in Rockport, MA, is the quintessential small-town school district: 1,000 students, grades K-12, attend the town’s lone elementary, middle and high schools in two adjacent buildings on a cozy tree-lined lot less than a mile from the rocky Atlantic coast.
When Monty Hitschler joined RPS as the district’s Director of Technology last fall, he stepped into a small school system on the cusp of a big transition. Interactive whiteboards had previously been installed into a handful of middle school classrooms, but that was just a jumping off point for the rapid transition that lay ahead.
Using federal stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), RPS this year doubled the staffing of its IT department from one full-time and one part-time position to three full-time staffers. It also invested heavily in new classroom technology while changing the official and unofficial policies towards mobile devices and Internet usage.
The changes are coming fast and furious: Teachers at almost every grade level are giving their lessons with interactive whiteboards, and students are using tablets, laptops and cellphones to participate in class. Outside of class, teachers and students are staying in touch through the Internet.
“We have been addressing anything and everything that could possibly be electronic [or] technology related,” Hitschler said. “We are trying to skip a few steps and get to 21st century learning… as fast as we can.”
The entire town of Rockport stands to benefit from the tech blitz: This summer, the town’s
