was priced at $1200 per unit (without a color
touchscreen or wireless). For the same price
today, a school can purchase two or three lap-
top computers with capabilities that are be-
yond the imagination of the original inven-
tors of the Apple II. And while education
has an abundance of digital tools to use, the
need is not in the tools. The need exists in the
ability and practice of using the extant tools.
The following are a sampling of living exam-
ples of the SAMR model in the Hacienda La
Puente Unified School District.
OverDrive: enhancing the reading
experience
Under the SAMR model, an example of
Augmentation (technology as a substitute
with functional improvement) is OverDrive,
which is a free service offered by HLPUSD
to students in support of literacy and lan-
guage arts. OverDrive allows students to
borrow digital content such as eBooks and
audiobooks anytime, anywhere. Every
OverDrive collection is slightly different be-
cause each library or school picks the digital
content they want for their users. All that
is needed to get started with the plethora of
free digital content from school is an Inter-
net connection and their HLPUSD student
ID and password. Students have access to
a District wide shared library that allows
them to borrow eBooks and audiobooks
using any browser from any device. Some
schools have additional selections they have
purchased for their students. The district
has allocated each school library a set of 30
Kindle E-readers for student checkout to
improve student access to technology.
OverDrive offers the software app called
Sora. This new app from OverDrive is de-
signed for students and features reading
activity enhancement and personalization.
The state of the art reading experience is cre-
ated by Sora’s eBook reader. A student can
add bookmarks, make notes and highlights,
and define words while reading. Select titles
have professional narration so students can
follow along with the text. Moreover, un-
like printed books, students can adjust the
font type (including dyslexic font) and font
size. The Sora audiobook player allows users
to listen when, where, and how they want.
Swipe on the book jacket to jump backward
or forward, or use the seek bar to go to a
specific spot. Adjustable playback speed In-
crease narration speed up to 3x. Students can
also add bookmarks, notes, and highlights
as they listen.
Collaboration to solve community
based problems with digital tools
The beauty of technology is that it tran-
scends content areas and grade levels. In a
high school physics class at Los Altos High
School, students are designing solutions to
community-based problems using digital
tools. To help teachers learn and adopt tech-
nology in pedagogy, Samsung has gifted
classrooms with tablets through their Sam-
sung Solve for Tomorrow contest. Los Altos
High School in Hacienda Heights became
the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Califor-
nia state winner in November 2018 for their
proposed STEM project to help control the
Asian tiger mosquito problem in their com-
munity. The goal is that students will get ac-
cess to digital tools to explore their STEM-
based questions and inquiries. This tool will
allow for data collection, writing for commu-
nication, conducting research, and creating
solutions to their investigations. This year,
Los Altos High School teacher Paul Fang
had a class investigate a way to build a better,
more effective mosquito trap for communi-
ties. The purpose of this project is for the stu-
dent to integrate technology in a novel way to
solve emerging, societal problems. This type
of learning is experiential, technology-based,
innovative, and most importantly, effective.
Advanced technology advancing
learning opportunities
Partnerships with local businesses and
learning communities provide opportuni-
ties for teacher development. In this case,
a Nanotechnology group that supports
Nano-inspired, phenomena-based teaching
partnered with a loan program for a Scan-
ning Electron Microscope under the Hita-
chi Inspire STEM Education Program for
Workman High School. In a setting like
this, students can explore their own ques-
tions about matter and its interactions, while
working and researching like an actual sci-
entist. The ability to use an SEM on a table
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