Westlake has invested heavily in campus technology. We provide students with a full-featured Computer Lab and fleets of portable devices (both tablets and laptops) in sufficient quantities to deliver 1:1 access in every elementary classroom. Beginning in 6th grade, students bring their own device for classroom use; each personal device must be certified for compliance with Westlake Christian School technology specifications. Every classroom features an interactive board/screen, a document camera, and wireless access to our content-filtered gigabit network. In addition to these hardware components, Westlake Christian School provides systems such as Canvas, Clever, Accelerated Reader, Discovery Education, FACTS, online versions of selected textbooks and a Westlake email address for every student in 3rd grade and above.
The guiding intent of Westlake Christian School’s investment in technology is for students to become confident and competent using technology to pursue learning more completely, creatively and efficiently, and to use their technology skills responsibly, safely and with the highest integrity. Technology instruction is integrated into the classroom curriculum at every level.
As such, Westlake has designed and implemented a customized Educational Technology program that reflects not only national and state standards but also the priorities of the local high schools to which our students graduate. The curriculum design begins with two sets of national guidelines: 1) the National Education Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S) published by the International Society for Technology in Education; 2) the Framework for 21st Century Learning published by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Westlake Christian School has incorporated the five Student Technology Literacy Indicators defined by the Florida Department of Education, and last but not least, the school benchmarks the high schools (public and private) to which most of our students graduate to understand the technology skills and practices expected of top-performing freshmen. All of these inputs are then distilled into a curriculum scope and sequence that guides instruction and assessments from kindergarten through middle school.