The mission of the Rowan-Salisbury School System is to develop globally competitive schools that inspire, challenge, and empower students to meet high academic standards, lead ethical lives, and demonstrate knowledgeable, responsible citizenship in an increasingly challenging world.  Our students live in an on-demand, technology-centric world.  The way our students learn and their expectation of school is different from the students of previous years.

We know by looking at 1:1 technology initiatives in schools across the nation, the engagement of both students and teachers can be significantly improved through the infusion of technology.  These schools are seeing students who want to take notes.  They are also seeing students who were once willing to take a zero and not do an assignment now completing assignments because technology is involved.  The Rowan-Salisbury School System knows that this type of engagement and attitude toward learning is essential for students to be successful in a global society and identified North Rowan High as a school where there is a great potential to make a difference in the students’ ability to be successful in the 21st century.

The iPod touch based Digital Learning Environment project at North Rowan High is the result of the joint partnership between Apple, Inc. and the Rowan-Salisbury School System to provide students with an opportunity to learn using 21st century technology.  Every student in the current Freshman Academy uses an iPod touch for their classes.  Every Freshman Academy classroom is also equipped with a MacBook mobile cart with ten laptops that can be used by students to create digital learning content. North Rowan High Principal Rodney Bass states: “With the iPod touch, students now have more knowledge in the palm of their hands than they would ever have through books or even during the general school day.”   

Rowan-Salisbury School System Superintendent, Dr. Judy Grissom, has been researching programs and methods of learning that would engage students at North Rowan High in an effort to make improvements in student academic achievement and to address the falling enrollment concerns. “Students bring technology to school with them each day,” says Dr. Grissom.  “ Students will bring technology such as cell phones and iPods to school every day and then we tell them to put them away as we revert back to older ways of teaching.  We are not engaging students in learning with the very methods they are comfortable in using and with the very tools they will need to be successful in life as they move into post secondary education and into the business world.  This has to change.”

Phil Hardin, the Executive Director of Technology for the Rowan-Salisbury School System, is leading the charge in overseeing the project and in educating teachers on how to use the technology so they can in turn use this instrument to instruct their students.  “In many cases, students are ahead of their teachers in knowing how to use technology,” says Hardin.  “Our first goal was to train the teachers on how they can use the iPod touch to teach the Standard Course of Study in an engaging way.”  After teachers completed training on how to use the iPod touch, all ninth-grade parents were invited to an orientation at North Rowan High where the program’s goals and objectives were explained. Students began using the iPod touch in March.  

The project at North Rowan High will be expanded. Each year, the new incoming ninth-graders will have the opportunity to use the iPod touch for their classes. This will continue every year until the entire school, grades 9-12, will be using the iPod touch for learning.

In the News

Mr. Murphy- Math Class

Mr. Vinson - Science Class

Ms. Crawford - Science Class