Digital Backpack

Uses for a Digital Backpack

Connecting to TSD-Student

Connecting to Stoneware

Keeping Your Devices Secure

Tech Support

Purchasing Recommendations

Acceptable Use Policy

FAQs

What is Digital Backpack?
We live in a world that is connected, information rich, and affords anyone with an Internet connection access to a vast array of free online tools. The Digital Backpack project will make it possible for students at Tahoma High School to bring their own wireless capable devices and use them at school to access those digital tools, resources, content, and connections.

When will Digital Backpack Start?
We will flip the switch on February 1st, 2010.

Why a Digital Backpack?
Our students will be able to immediately access additional information, identify tutorials and help sites for later use, collaborate in documenting their thinking, search their device to immediately bring together all of the resources they have available on a topic, and access tools that support organizing ideas. Teachers will be able to leverage this increased access to support our students as they develop toward exemplifying our District Outcomes and in becoming life-long learners.

A Message from School Principal, Terry Duty
Students are not required or expected to bring a wireless-capable device to school. Those students who do have them will be welcome to make use of them at school to support their learning.
We need to start looking at these electronic devices as “just another tool” for learning. We are going to use technology as a tool to leverage learning. In fact, we think of computers as just that, another tool. Pencils, scissors, and markers are all tools we use in education. It won’t be long until everything you need, including your textbook, will be found on a portable electronic device. This doesn’t mean students will be required to bring digital tools; it means they will be “allowed” to use them if they have them. Because of their increased access to technology, our students will engage in more high-level thinking and authentic collaboration and problem solving. In short, they will be able to fully develop the skills, habits and attitudes they'll need to be lifelong learners.

What Will Students Have Access To?
Using their own devices, students will be able to access the Internet at school. An online portal called Stoneware will provide them 24/7 access to their files, the school’s public drive, and to some common programs. Students will connect to our network wirelessly using their device in the same way that one would connect to any wireless network at home, in a library, or in a business. Students will have to provide their username and password (the same ones they use to log on to district computers) to establish the connection. At school, the district’s Internet filter will be in place regardless of what device or means of access is used.

How are Teachers Preparing for Digital Backpack
THS teachers are increasingly utilizing blogs, wikis and other Web 2.0 tools to enhance and extend their students’ learning, to knock down the walls of our classrooms and the idea that learning only takes place in classrooms and only happens between 8:15 a.m. and 2:45 p.m. each day. We are creating an environment where students are both respected and nurtured, where they are treated as professional learners, where they are seen as individuals that can contribute to the common good. Our students require an environment where they are viewed not just as passive consumers of information, but as active producers who add meaning and value to the information in an environment where students are encouraged to interact not only with others in their classroom but with others in their community and around the world. Our students need to learn in a responsive information environment. They must be able to ask questions and seek answers not just from their teachers, but also from the vast information and human resources that the Internet enables.