Visitors from the Japanese Ministry of Education observed students and teachers using iPads in a classroom setting last week.

“Their goal is to find how schools use technology in education,” Chaperone Christine Karmin said. “They’re not looking for anything specific like iPads, they’re just looking at how teachers are using the technology.”

Principal Derrell Douglas said the visit was part of an all day tour.

“I know that some of our teachers are doing really creative things with the iPads,” he said. “I also wanted them to see students engaged in learning using the iPad. The iPad can be a useful tool.”

The school was selected to show how teachers incorporated iPads into their teaching style.

“Some questions that they (the group) have right now include everything from what device to buy to how to control what’s done with the device,” Douglas said. “Right now they don’t even know what type of device they’re going to issue, they’re just exploring the possibilities.”

The visitors saw first hand how iPads were used.

“They are just taking their time to develop a good plan before they do it, and the device they choose may very well be an iPad because it’s the most popular device on the market,” Douglas said.

The Ministry saw a variety of things.

“I wanted them to see that the iPads could be used differently from one English classroom to the next or from a science to a math classroom,” Douglas said. “There are a lot of different ways to use the iPad so I wanted them to see a variety.”

Douglas said the Japanese Ministry of Education’s visit was beneficial.

“I hope that they got some ideas on what they might do in the classrooms if their students had some sort of device,” he said. “I hope that they were able to make some decisions based on that they saw.”

Students and staff prepared for the visit.

“I organized a schedule,” Douglas said. “I met with the teachers so they would know what to expect. I met with the student council, and we chose tour guides to lead the groups to the classrooms.”

The counselors volunteered to collect omiyage.

“Omiyage is a traditional Japanese gift that you give a visitor,” he said. “We gave them a little gift bag (full of) a couple of items that were donated by different organizations like t-shirts.”

Douglas said he was proud of the students and teachers who participated.

He said, “I hope that this was a way to showcase how good our teachers and students are.”