When Ling Lange enters a classroom, everyone

stops to listen. With her easy smile and amiable per-

sonality, she makes technology accessible and exciting

for even the most technophobic of teachers.

In 2009, Ling became ISP’s ‘e-learning Facilitator’.

Her mission was threefold: to provide support and

training for teachers in the use of classroom technol-

ogy; assist them in incorporating best practices for

embedding ICT in the Primary School; and, fi nally,

research and resource new technologies to enhance

teaching and learning

Two years later, and the results speak for them-

selves—teachers and students have never been more

engaged with technology, and many exciting new

initiatives are in the pipeline.

We spoke with Ling and asked her what she thought

the most successful aspects had been in each of the

following areas. Here is what she told us:

Classroom Technology

SMART Board training has been very popular. While

the boards themselves are easy to use at a basic level,

training allows teachers to exploit their full potential.

Training can be one-on-one or in small groups or as

a ‘master class’ workshop where experienced users

share ideas and work together to solve problems.

Currently, I am working with Secondary School lan-

guage teachers to develop materials that build on the

special features of the SMART Notebook software and

with Primary School teachers to demonstrate how they

can record and replay board activities using the SMART

capture tools.

Collaboration with Teachers

I work closely with the PYP Coordinator, Sean

Walker, to produce a detailed plan of how to embed

ICT in the curriculum across all grades and subjects to

best meet the requirements of the IB programme.

Collaboration is central to our e-learning strategy

and ‘team teaching’ collaborations model the behavior

we want to encourage in students. Wikispaces have

proven a great tool for this kind of activity. We have

also shown students how to collaborate on dynamic,

interactive presentations such as Prezi, which has

become an excellent tool to support their Exhibition

projects in Grade 5.

Resourcing New Technologies

New educational tools appear every day, and it

is my role to ‘test drive’ them and suggest the ones

most likely to support the curriculum. One area we

have given special attention to is e-safety. We have

materials that are aimed at both students and parents.

Our fi rst e-safety workshop for parents at the Primary

School was very popular, and we look forward to

delivering further sessions this year.

The Magic Ingredient

What is Ling’s magic ingredient? All the teachers

she works with are impressed by her infectious energy,

enthusiasm and ‘can do’ attitude, and all agree she has

the ability to inspire and to motivate. Just ask Danielle

Beaulieu, the Primary School Principal: “Ling inspires

teachers to take risks and gets people interested and

excited about learning new things and innovative prac-

tices. She convinces educators that what they think is

too diffi cult or complicated can be simple... Ling brings

equal amounts of both talent and devotion to her work;

she will say that she is just an ordinary person trying to

help others reach greatness using ideas and tools she has

learned, but I think she is quite extraordinary indeed.”

Facilitating e-Learning

at ISP

An Interview with Ling Lange

8 the tribune — The Journal of the International School of Paris — www.isparis.edu