Technology-Enhanced Learning

Baylor School is well equipped for the information age, committed not only philosophically but also technologically. Baylor currently has approximately 650 computers and 11 servers on campus. Over 50 classrooms are equipped with projectors connected to computers. Two departments – mathematics and science – have mini-labs in a number of classrooms. All students, faculty, administrators, and parents have e-mail accounts. Our science and technology building houses 100 computers, 14 laboratories, and three state-of-the art computer classrooms. School Pads and SMART boards are present in several classrooms, helping to transform computers into powerful interactive teaching tools.

While the number of computer labs and the accessibility to computer equipment is important, we encourage parents to examine how computers are actually being used in the classroom to fully understand how Baylor uses technology to enhance learning. All of our academic departments have incorporated computers into the curriculum, and students access the internet to research everything from current events to ancient civilizations.

Below are just a few examples of how Baylor faculty and students actively pursue the possibilities provided by technology everyday. For more information or specific questions, please feel free to contact Jim Stover, Associate Head for Academic Affairs.

  • Middle grade teachers use technology to enhance their classrooms in a wide variety of ways. Internet research is a frequent activity, and students do class work in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.
  • Art teacher Bob Fazio uses the latest version of Adobe's Photoshop and the department's digital cameras, scanners, and color printers as tools to create art. Students transform digital photos of themselves to create unique and meaningful self-portraits. The computer is also used as a compositional tool in advanced art classes. Students photograph the subject matter they are going to paint and then adjust the composition, color, and format of the image in Photoshop, quickly creating options for finished paintings.
  • The math department's primary technological focus is the integration of graphing calculators into the math curriculum. Graphing calculators, which all Baylor students learn to use, are powerful tools capable of evaluating and graphing complex mathematical functions. Students and teachers can link the calculators to a desktop computer to print graphs, transfer information and download programs. Two math classrooms are equipped with TI-Navigator systems. In addition, geometry teachers use the software program "Geometer's Sketchpad" to enhance the understanding of geometrical concepts.
  • In English classes students do multi media projects using Front Page or PowerPoint as part of their class work. Ninth grade English students do a lengthy poetry project, and all sophomores do at least one group PowerPoint. Joe Gawrys has led students in building websites; two of the most popular are the Macbeth and the Rumi websites. Junior American literature classes are currently working on developing a detailed American poetry website.
  • In addition to PowerPoint projects, language specific software, and CD-ROMs, foreign language classes use the internet to visit the Prado in Madrid or a bullfight in Mexico City. Students in Ginnie Harris's French class begin each day watching the French television news via her computer – live and direct from Paris.
  • Students in Physics I study motion by entering measured data into their graphing calculators, then analyzing velocities and accelerations using graphs. Throughout the year students use a simulator to study kinematics, mechanics, electricity, optics, and color and individually work their way through programs on computers in the Weeks lab and science mini-labs to gain a better understanding of these concepts. Using a simulator known as "World in Motion," physics students click on moving objects to register data that the program graphs. They then use physics concepts and equations to correlate and analyze the data they have collected.

Teachers on Teaching

"My daily challenges are to make learning make sense and to make teaching transparent. As an "old-school" Baylor alumnus, a current parent, and a grade six teacher, I have a triple responsibility for community building, not only to build a learning community in my classroom among each new cadre of students, but also to nurture a sense within each student that he or she is a part of a larger phenomenon – the other students currently on the campus, as well as a "long red line" of Baylor students and alumni stretching back over a century..."
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Ward Fleissner,
Middle School Teacher

Baylor currently has approximately 650 computers and 11 servers on campus. Two departments – mathematics and science – have mini-labs in selected classrooms. All students, faculty, administrators, and parents of boarding students have e-mail accounts. Our science and technology building houses 100 computers, 14 laboratories, three state-of-the art computer classrooms. School Pads and SMART boards are present in several classrooms, helping to transform computers into powerful interactive teaching tools.