Hilltop school launches Chromebook Initiative

SPARTA — Hilltop Country Day School continued its commitment to being a Future Ready School by launching a 1:1 faculty and staff Chromebook initiative made possible through a generous donation by Alan and Stacey Gibson of Columbia.
This is phase one of a two-phase project to become a fully operational digital learning environment.
“Hilltop has been committed to providing an excellent private school education to northern New Jersey families for close to 50 years and what has remained true all those years is a commitment to each child who attends,” said Head of School Peter Gordon. “A commitment to provide a top notch education and school experience, small class size, and personalized attention.”
Now, as a school committed to being Future Ready, Hilltop is creating a 21st Century learning environment by utilizing design labs, Makerbot 3D printers, teaching coding and robotics and abiding by an educational philosophy that celebrates and supports project-based learning.
Hilltop’s faculty and staff will be undergoing a series of professional development workshops prior to the phase 2 roll out in September 2017. Phase 2 will provide, through a second donation by the Gibson Family, Chromebooks for every elementary school student in Grades 1-4. These devices will remain at school on laptop carts but will be available for every student in the Lower School at any time throughout the school day. Hilltop’s Upper School, middle school students in grades 5-8, will be a Bring Your Own Device environment beginning in September 2017.
“In order to fully prepare Hilltop students for the next step at secondary schools and beyond, we must provide them with the most up to date tools, resources and emerging technologies. The launching of a mobile learning environment with the purchasing of Chromebooks for our faculty and our students, to supplement the already diverse learning environment at Hilltop, will give the students the best possible opportunity to be successful as tomorrow’s leaders in the 21st Century landscape,” Gordon said.
At Hilltop, where teachers have utilized iPads in the classroom for several years, teaching with tablets and laptops augments the curriculum, provides flexibility in the learning environment, and enhances learning outcomes. Being part of our global community calls for digitally ready students who use the available tools to enhance their learning.
“Classroom instruction is a blend of instructional practices,” Gordon said. “The Chromebook provides a platform that helps students create multimedia content, offer collaborative and individualized learning opportunities, and increase their digital literacy.”
This is accomplished in a regulated instructional environment where teachers and students work together to discuss the relevance of the material they find through search engines, and together they can think critically about the quality of the work being studied and consumed. A tablet environment provides apps that are designed to make producing content easy and are rich with creative options.
“Hilltop’s goal is to support our students’ creative minds, thirst for knowledge, and ability to master material,” Gordon said.