Most international schools attempt to model the mission of their school in their actions, programs, and attitudes. Likewise the International School of Belgrade is clearly seeking to model its mission of being a "collaborative learning community that inspires and empowers its members to discover their passions to be global innovators" by creating a 2 year technology program that supports both students and teachers.

One aspect of our technology program is related to hardware adoption. Over the past two years ISB has extended its 1-1 Laptop program to include all students from grades 6-12 as well as providing 2:1 laptop carts in grades 3-5. Additionally we have also created an iPad Pilot program at both the Lower and Upper Schools. This pilot program was created by the Technology Task Force at ISB whose purpose is to guide the development of instructional technology uses at all levels of the school. As part of the pilot program 10 teachers were selected from an application process to receive an iPad with the understanding that they would seek out ways to integrate the set of 20 iPads that are housed at each campus, into their lessons and also to share their experiences with other staff members.

Because effective technology use also requires professional development for teachers, ISB has developed an in-house Technology professional development program that provides teachers the opportunity to learn from each other in a collaborative model rather than seeking outside consultants. The focus of this professional development program is three fold:

1. Become familiar with the NETS Standards for Students and Teachers
2. Explore effective technology integration using the SAMR Model
3. Create opportunities for teachers to work collaboratively on technological practices they are currently using in their classrooms.

For more on this program please follow this link.

In this second year of the program the focus is on providing staff members with an exposure to a variety of "hands on" workshops designed to provide them with "tried and true" technology practices to improve the integration of technology at all levels. Just a few of the workshops that will be offered this year include:

• Improving Teacher Productivity
• Effective uses for a class webpage (Google Sites, Moodle, etc)
• Quick Technology Tools to Demonstrate Student Understanding
• Tips / Tools to create a Moodle page
• Successful integration of Student Blogging
• How to use iMovie with iPads

The development of these hands on workshops was directly related to staff feedback form the 1st year of the program in which they found the interactions and conversations with staff members to be highly beneficial to their own professional development in terms of understanding not only the uses of technology, but how to use them more effectively as an educational tool.

Jeff Eller
International School of Belgrade
Banjičkih žrtava 6 11040 Belgrade, Serbia
Phone: +381 11 206-9999