Connected Learning
“At Pacifica we believe that today’s students must learn to use technology. We train them to use modern means to engage with ideas that have stood the test of time. Connected Learning develops 21st-century thinking skills, prepares students for the technology used in college and the workplace, and helps them understand technology’s role in a well-balanced life.”
Pacifica strategically deploys technology in ways that develop our students’ ability to think wisely and critically about the work they are doing across our curriculum. Through the use of iPads and cutting-edge applications students are taught to utilize technology to become better researchers, scientists, analysts, writers, and communicators. They learn to use technology as a tool to support their learning across all disciplines, foster greater levels of communication with their peers and teachers, work collaboratively to solve problems, think creatively, and to organize their busy lives.
We also teach them to understand technology’s role in a well-balanced life—or how technology helps them to live well. Living well—experiencing joy in life, growing in faith, practicing virtue, and making good decisions—requires attention, personal reflection, and a life in community. Technology has changed our means of communication, our processes for doing work, our access to information and tools, and brought us closer to the international community. But technology has not changed what it means to be human. Pacifica students are taught the importance of human interactions with their various communities as an essential component to a life well lived. Our students learn technology’s important role in modern society while embracing the fundamentals of human experience.
Pacifica’s technology plan purposefully integrates its instruction, technology, and environment—we call this Connected Learning. Here’s how we do it:
Technology | More Than A 1:1 Program
The use of technology at Pacifica is much more than a 1:1 iPad program. Connected Learning utilizes technology to best connect teachers, students, and the Pacifica curriculum across our campus.
- 1:1 iPads— Every student is required to have an iPad that is linked to the Pacifica network. This provides ubiquitous access to—and collaborative interaction with—technology and information for our entire school community.
- Campus-wide cloud-managed network— provides a seamless user experience and access to school-filtered internet and applications.
- Cloud-based learning management system— that connects all the digital tools and resources teachers use into one simple place. It empowers teachers and students with countless tools to make teaching and learning easier and more enjoyable.
- Google apps for education— web-based email, calendar, and documents for collaborative study anytime, anywhere.
- Online course options— provides students with 100’s of elective course options in addition to the Pacifica program.
- Student-response systems—provides continuous and immediate feedback during classes.
- A digital workflow— students and teachers use a suite of applications and tools that fully integrate into the entire Pacifica program.
Instruction And Connected Learning
The academic program leads students on a four-year journey through the humanities, sciences, and the arts, while integrating faith into the curriculum when appropriate. This path focuses on the Great Conversation of the Western tradition utilizing the tools of inquiry and rhetoric. It also develops a student’s analytical, problem-solving, and technological skills, preparing him or her for a vital role in the 21st Century economy.
- Excellent faculty— who are well equipped to engage and connect with students through a variety of instruction modes, from debate and discussion to lecture and team projects.
- Liberal arts curriculum— which prepares students for college and careers, teaches them to read, write, calculate, and think, frees them to know themselves and their world, and to become more human.
- A joy in learning— a teaching philosophy that seeks to move students from passive consumers of information to active life-long learners.
- A learning community— through peer-to-peer learning connecting students with other students through team teaching, group-based projects, and collaborative research papers.
- Faith in learning— we take time to integrate students’ learning with their faith, by showing how what they learn can help a person better experience God’s Kingdom. This experience provides a foundation from which they explore our modern world.
- Involved citizens— we connect our students with the business and not-for-profit world through guest speakers, internships, service projects, and local and international travel and service opportunities.
Environment | Space
A student’s environment affects their learning. We equip classrooms with mobile furniture because it allows teachers to change the physical space of any classroom in a matter of seconds. This furniture gives our teachers control and flexibility to effectively utilize multiple instructional modes within a single class period, speaking directly to the various learning styles of each student. Our furniture also adapts to the learner, providing our students with a more comfortable and personal learning space in every class.
Connected Learning at Pacifica connects technology and the best proven instructional methodologies and curriculum with an environment that encourages active participation and engagement with other students, faculty, and the entire school program.
- Flexible classrooms—which allow teachers to shape the students’ physical environment to enhance that day’s material.
- Mobile furniture—which allows students to gather together for collaborative tasks, to separate to individual study, or to form a circle for Socratic discussion.
- Student/teacher collaboration spaces—which allow teachers to work directly with their students, to maximize their interactions.
- A school culture of connectedness, collaboration, and community—which blends the school culture itself with the physical space in which it exists.
Take a closer look
Interested in exploring further what it means to think and live well? View our links to explore the many opportunities available at Pacifica.
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