NORTH TUSTIN, Calif., Sept. 06, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Prentice School, a private, nonprofit, nonpublic (NPS) academic school, which offers unparalleled learning experiences to bright students with learning differences, announced today that they are expanding their educational technology program to augment student utilization of the latest educational and assistive technology to personalize the learning experience and support individual student needs.
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“The role of technology at Prentice will play a critical part in supporting and driving learning for students with learning differences,” says Christopher Sanita, Principal of The Prentice School. “This may be represented by technology tools employed by faculty during instruction, or may be represented by assistive technology and other technologies utilized by students in order to effectively create and showcase knowledge.”
Prentice uses the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards as a guide to help students build the skills and competencies required to succeed in the Digital Age. Kimber Johnston, Educational Technology Manager of The Prentice School says, “The ISTE standards go far beyond mere technical knowhow, and include the types of critical thinking, citizenship, and social awareness that Prentice believes all students need. These standards include Empowered Learner, Innovative Designer, Digital Citizen, Knowledge Constructor, Computational Thinker, Creative Communicator, and Global Collaborator.”
In the Prentice technology lab and in their classrooms, Prentice students build their digital literacy alongside their content knowledge through project learning units incorporating elements such as stop-motion animation, green screen videos, podcasts, coding games and animations, robotics and more. These projects combine content knowledge from the classrooms, with technology tools in the technology lab, along with Design Thinking and the Engineering Design Process to help Prentice students become creators and innovators.
Alicia Maciel, Executive Director of The Prentice School says, “As Orange County’s leading school for students with learning differences, we are committed to developing students who are effective communicators and collaborators, good citizens, critical thinkers, self-directed learners, creators and innovators, and who are technologically proficient and responsible. Technology will allow our students to propel them in all these areas while allowing them to explore their creative and innovative side.”
Kimber states, “Prentice students have the opportunity to create and share knowledge using video, audio, and images. For students who experience difficulty reading and writing, the ability to express themselves multi-modally through various technology tools can unlock the rich knowledge they have to share.”
“Kimber was hired to take Prentice’s educational technology program to a whole new level. Her passion, expertise and skill set will allow our students to shape their own learning, and technology can give them the support and autonomy to do that,” says Alicia.
Prentice’s vision for the future includes additional opportunities for students to engage with technology in the realm of 3D modeling, deeper robotics and coding experiences, and student entrepreneurship.
For over 30 years, The Prentice School has transformed the lives of over 5,000 students with learning differences such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, ADHD, anxiety, and visual processing and executive function disorders.
Parents and donors, and educational and healthcare professionals, interested in learning more about The Prentice School should visit www.prentice.org for additional information.
ABOUT THE PRENTICE SCHOOL
Founded in 1986, The Prentice School is a private, nonprofit academic school located in North Tustin, California and is a certified nonpublic school (NPS) through the California Department of Education and is fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. The Prentice approach is designed to engage students on three learning pathways, including auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Using evidence-based curriculum and instructional methodologies, a structured literacy approach, multi-sensory instructional strategies, and ongoing progress monitoring, The Prentice School offers an unparalleled learning experience to students with learning differences who possess average to high intelligence, whose needs have not been met in a more traditional classroom setting.
You can learn more about The Prentice School at www.prentice.org or call (714) 244.4600.