Liberty Elementary School first 1-to-1 iPad school in Baltimore

By the end of December, Principal Joseph Manko expects to have 330 iPads at Liberty Elementary School.
That will make the school Baltimore’s first virtually one-to-one school. With 418 total students, and no need for an iPad in every class, each child attending Liberty will be able to get their hands on an iPad at least once a week, if not almost every day.
Manko, who is now in his fourth year as principal of Liberty Elementary, said the school has 210 iPads right now, and will be purchasing 120 more.
As Technical.ly Baltimore has previously reported, it was Manko’s leadership that pushed Liberty toward embracing a digital approach to classroom learning.
It was also Manko who suggested to several of his teachers that they apply for the EdTech summer fellowship conducted by the Federal Hill nonprofit Digital Harbor Foundation. Over the summer of 2012, 10 teachers from schools around Baltimore city learned a range of skills, including digital media, web design and app development.
Liberty Elementary School was one of the early pilot locations for the EdTech fellows program. Teachers there have used the school’s iPads to run “flipped classrooms,” with students working on projects using the iPads while the teachers meet with other students one-on-one.
Located in the Central Forest Park neighborhood, Liberty Elementary School teaches children from pre-kindergarten through 5th grade, and recently added two classes of Head Start students to teach kids as young as 3 years old.