Technology

Technology Vision Statement

At Park, we aim to prepare learners to be knowledgeable, empathetic and dynamic leaders within our local and global communities. Our approach to technology is one that places the development of an authentic voice at the center of the student experience and assures that the same young person we see in all facets of school life is reflected within her or his online persona.

Our goal is to nurture students who will engage with the world, including the online world, and leave it better than they found it.

Led by this goal, The Park School’s use of technology will…
  • Support all members of the community to advance the mission of the School
  • Follow the trajectory of the School’s curriculum
  • Provide a safe and welcoming online environment for all members of our community
  • Align with our community’s behavior expectations and policies
  • Motivate the community to move beyond the role of passive user and toward the roles of active creator, collaborator and contributor
  • Encourage learners to engage technology in a critical and intentional manner
  • Remain flexible and responsive to change
  • Empower users to become experts
  • Inspire curiosity and conversation
  • Strive to work in concert with technology policies at home
  • Fold the introduction of new tools into the everyday Park experience

Acceptable Online Resources

In order to provide the best educational experience for your children, our teachers and students use a variety of online applications and cloud-based services. In cases where these services require each student and teacher to have their own individual login username and password, each user profile may contain a limited set of additional personal information including name and e-mail address. This information is required for the routine operation of each service. In some cases, these services are highly controlled to allow access and interaction only between members of our school community, for example collaboration between teachers and their students. In other cases, this may include opportunities to collaborate with carefully chosen “outsiders” who are not members of our immediate Park School community. For example, students and teachers may collaborate with other classrooms or experts throughout the world.
 
Not every student will have user accounts on all services. Each service is provided for only those students for whom they are required. For example, Lower Division students do not have user accounts in Google Apps for Education and Upper Division students do not have access to Lexia (see below).
 
Following are specific online services that have been approved by The Park School and require students to log in with their own individual login name and password. This list will change from time to time so check back here when you would like to view the current list of approved services.
 
If you have questions related to these online services, please address them to Carole Carter, Interim Director of Technology at carterc@parkschool.org.
 

List of 22 items.

  • Adobe Spark

    Adobe Spark
    Adobe Spark is a free online and mobile graphic design app. It enables users to easily create images, videos, and web pages to tell stories and share ideas quickly and beautifully. Spark lets users create three types of content: Use Page to create a story using text, images, and video. When you're done they present your story as a responsive web page that can be viewed in any web browser. Use Post to create images optimized for social media; you provide images and text and they'll help with the design. They'll also help you create the right shape and size image for each social media platform. Use Video to create, well, a video. Add videos from your computer or iOS camera roll, overlay text, add your voice and background music, and they’ll help turn your story into a video to share with the world.

  • The Park School Website

    Our school web site is an important means of communication between home and school. The school maintains strict control over who can login. Permissions are strictly based upon the role of each individual, e.g. student, teacher, school administrator, parent or alumni.

  • Code.org

    Code.org
    Code.org is a website that teaches programming, starting with one-hour tutorials designed for all ages in over 45 languages. Join millions of students and teachers in over 180 countries starting with an Hour of Code. Want to keep learning? Go beyond an hour. 
    Terms of Service
    Privacy Policy

  • Edmodo

    Edmodo provides teachers and students a secure place to connect and collaborate, share content and educational applications, and access class discussions and notifications. Edmodo's goal is to help educators harness the power of social media to customize the classroom for each and every learner. Currently Edmodo is used within a selected number of Upper Division classes.

  • Explain Everything

    Explain Everything
    Explain Everything is an interactive whiteboard app that allows users to create, collaborate, and share in an infinite collaborative space.

  • Google Apps for Education

     
    Google Apps for Educationis an integrated suite of online applications including but not limited to word processing, e-mail, presentations, spreadsheets, calendars, web sites, blogs, video, photos and more. With Google Apps for Education, The Park School has strict control over who can log in and participate in our Google Apps domain. Currently, this includes all faculty, staff and students in grades three through eight. Furthermore, The Park School has the ability to monitor and limit the abilities of various groups of users depending upon their age and requirements. For example, third graders are not permitted to use e-mail, fourth graders have e-mail that restricts them to addressing teachers only, and restrictions gradually loosen as children progress through the school.

    Google Apps for Education Frequently Asked Questions

    Please note: The privacy policy that is in effect for the core Google Apps services, including e-mail, drive (docs), and calendar, strictly prohibits Google and its business affiliates from using the personal information of our Google Apps for Education users for purposes other than those required for the operation of the service. That is, they do not use personal information associated with core services for their own business purposes. For additional services, including YouTube (video), eBlogger (blogs), Picassa (photos), etc., Google's policy states that the privacy policies in effect are the same as those that apply to personally created public Google user accounts and are therefore more general than those that apply to our Google Apps for Education user accounts. It is the policy of The Park School that extended services may be provided to faculty and staff, but only the core Google Apps services are available to students. 

    We have strict control over the accounts created within our Google Apps domain, and also control over what each user account can and can not do. That said, our controls are not without limit and a clear Park School policy is communicated to students and teachers regarding what use is and is not acceptable.

  • imPACT Testing

    imPAct Testing
    As part of Park School's continued effort to keep students healthy and safe, Park's Nursing Office and Athletic Department have joined forces to offer ImPACT® (Immediate Post-concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing) baseline and post-concussion testing to all students in Grades IV - VIII.  This test is computerized and takes about 40 minutes to complete.  The results are saved on on the imPACT website’s secure server, and are only accessible by the Park School nurses and your family medical provider. If a concussion is suspected, the baseline report will serve as a comparison to a repeat ImPACT test, which medical professionals can use to assess potential changes or damage caused by a concussion.  The School will not use this test to diagnose students; we are simply offering the test as a service to families and their medical providers.
    Terms and Conditions
    Privacy Policy

  • IXL

    IXL
    Practice makes perfect, and IXL makes math and language arts practice fun! IXL offers unlimited, algorithmically generated questions; real-time analytical reports; and dynamic scoring to encourage mastery. Released in 2007, it has since become the world's most popular subscription-based learning site for K–12. With more than 4,000 unique and challenging skills to master, IXL offers a dynamic and enjoyable environment suitable for any learning style.

  • KidBlog

    KidBlog
    Founded in 2010, Kidblog started in co-founder Matt Hardy’s 4th grade classroom as a way for students to replace paper notebooks. Since then, Kidblog has become the largest student blogging platform, used by teachers around the world to engage students in the writing process. Their core mission is to provide teachers with a safe platform for students to share their voice with an authentic audience.

  • Lexia

    Lexia provides explicit, systematic, personalized learning in reading instruction and delivers norm-referenced performance data and analysis without interrupting the flow of instruction to administer a test. Aligned to the Common Core State Standards, this scalable, research-proven, technology-based system accelerates reading skills development, predicts students’ year-end performance and provides teachers data-driven action plans to help differentiate instruction. Currently Lexia is used only within the Lower Division.

  • Listen Current

    Listen Current
    Listen Current makes it easy to bring authentic voices and compelling non-fiction stories to the classroom. They curate the best of public radio to keep teaching connected to the real world and build student listening skills at the same time.

  • MindMup

    MindMup
    MindMup is a free online mind mapping tool. 
    Terms of Service
    Privacy Policy

  • NoodleTools

    NoodleTools
    NoodleTools has emerged as the leading integrated academic research platform on the Web, transforming the way that teachers provide differentiated instruction of literacy to students in upper elementary through university. A cornerstone in thousands of subscribing schools and universities, NoodleTools supports the research process with a platform of integrated tools for note-taking, outlining, citation, document archiving/annotation, and collaborative research and writing.
    Terms of Service
    Privacy Policy

  • Prezi

    Prezi
    Prezi is a presentation tool that can be used as an alternative to traditional slide making programs such as PowerPoint. Instead of slides, Prezi makes use of one large canvas that allows students to pan and zoom to various parts of the canvas and emphasize the ideas presented there. Prezi supports the use of text, images, and videos and also provides a collection of templates to choose from to help new users get accustomed to the interface.

  • Quizlet

    Quizlet is a free website providing learning tools for students, including flashcards, study, and game modes.

  • QwertyTown

    QwertyTown
    QwertyTown is a web-based keyboarding app that teaches typing and online communication skills. Students are driven to succeed by QwertyTown's games, rewards, social motivation, powerful teacher reports, and a deep understanding of how keyboarding skills improve their lives in and out of school.
    Privacy policy
    Terms of use

  • Scratch

    Scratch
    Scratch is a free programming language and online community where students can create their own interactive stories, games, and animations.
    Terms of Service
    Privacy Policy

  • Screencastify

    Screencastify
    Screencastify is a simple video screen capture software for Chrome. Students just press record, and the content of their tab, webcam or desktop is recorded. They can easily create screencasts for video tutorials, record presentations, etc.

  • SeeSaw

    SeeSaw
    SeeSaw is a tool designed for the creation of student driven digital portfolios and simple parent communication.
    Privacy Policy

  • ThingLink

    ThingLink is an interactive media platform that empowers publishers, educators, brands, and bloggers to create more engaging content by adding rich media links to photos and videos.
    Stuents use ThingLink to create interactive news photography, maps, posters, family albums, infographics, and shoppable product catalogs in minutes! They can also keep track of how people interact with their content as it spreads across the web.

  • TypingPal

    Dynamic and stimulating, Typing Pal Online offers a personalized approach to learning keyboard skills. With nothing more than a web browser and a subscription, you can make rapid progress by benefitting from the most up-to-date games and exercises. Typing Pal Online gives you a personal web account that can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection; no download or CD-ROM is required.

  • Voice Thread

     VoiceThread allows students and teachers to integrate voice recordings and other types of media for commenting on an original artifact. VoiceThread offers a natural online interaction that lends itself to students presenting and defending their work before experts and peers.

Meet the Team

List of 5 members.

The Park School, an independent elementary school in Brookline, Massachusetts offers an exceptional education from pre-kindergarten through Grade VIII.
 

The Park School

171 Goddard Avenue, Brookline, MA 02445
Phone: (617) 277-2456 Fax: (617) 232-1261