All around us, departments and individuals are using technology to reach outside the boundaries of Andover’s campus, reinventing and strengthening Andover’s identity as a “private school with a public purpose.”
Yesterday, the Math Department forged a historic partnership to create Khan Academy’s BC Calculus course, joining the website’s mission to make education “completely free, forever” by providing comprehensive online video lessons on topics ranging from Economics to Art History. “Non Sibi High School,” an effort spearheaded by Kevin Cardozo, Instructor in Chemistry, will provide free chemistry lessons and problems not only to Andover students, but to any student with Internet access. In the same vein, the textbook that has served as the core of Andover’s journalism class will soon be made available free-of-charge online.
While each of these initiatives is the effort of several individuals or departments, collectively, they are a reaffirmation of Andover’s dedication to educating youth from every quarter. Although Andover offers need-blind financial aid, there are still countless students who have either never heard of Andover or are in situations that make an Andover education seem impossible. By putting its journalism, chemistry and calculus materials online for all the world to use, Andover is taking a step towards giving those students equal access to all the same materials available to us.
Beyond that, Andover’s willingness to try new teaching models involving technology in the classroom, especially with the iPad pilot program, represents the school’s participation in a critical national discussion about equalizing and advancing secondary education as a whole.
Andover’s Chemistry Department, for example, is experimenting with the “flipped classroom” model, where students listen to lectures at home and then use classroom time to practice problems and concepts with the teacher, much like how humanities classes are already taught. Although some have complained that this model seems counterintuitive or inefficient, Andover students should recognize that perfecting the “flipped classroom” model is an ongoing process taking place on a national scale, both in high-performing schools as well as under-performing districts. It’s not just about us. Trying a “flipped classroom” is Andover’s way of taking an active, even a leadership role, in the national conversation on how to improve pedagogy.
Though having to find a wi-fi hotspot in order to complete a Russian exercise online may seem like an unnecessary hassle on a busy Thursday night, Andover is participating in an important national effort to democratize and improve education through technology.
This editorial represents the views of The Phillipian Editorial Board CXXXVI.
