Technology use increases all the time in classrooms these days, but Cincinnati Christian Schools have taken technology to another level, undergoing what officials call a “digital conversion” that makes major changes to class structures.

In the classes, the students not only have Apple MacBook Air computers issued to them by the school, but they can use them to take lessons off of school hours to hit the ground running during an actual class, to cite just one example of the changes that have taken place since the beginning of this school year.

When some schools use technology, “a lot of times, it’s technology for technology’s sake,” said Mark Phair, the spokesman for Cincinnati Christian, which has begun the digital conversion at its Morris Road campus.

“The whole point of this program was to revolutionize the way we instruct our students,” he said. “This wasn’t a technology change, it was a fundamental change.”

Principal Deborah Enos said that in English class, students could post their thoughts about a book to a discussion board they could easily share with other students. Or they can go on-line at night, and watch a video their teacher wants them to see, so that they are better prepared for class the next day. This is called a “flipped” lesson.

“Another teacher is using the flipped classroom to do some extra tutoring. He’ll work some sample problems, and show (students) how to work some extra problems, and then they can go back and watch them later,” Enos said.

The new processes have made not only the students, but the teachers more engaged, said Superintendent Terry Diefenbacher.

“Typically a classroom would be teacher-led, with content pretty much driven by a textbook that was in the classroom. Now, because of the Internet, teachers can guide and direct students to various contents as it relates to the curriculum … students can do their own research and hunting for information. It becomes their education, their learning. Collaboration can go on in the classroom in small groups, sharing what they’ve learned amongst themselves instead of listening to a teacher present all the information,” he said.

The project, paid for by a $372 fee paid annually per students, was inspired by a similar project in Mooresville Graded School District in North Carolina, which saw its test scores improve considerably as a result, Phair said.

Teacher Ann Schroeder, who has been one of the leaders in the conversion, said, “It brings a renewed interest for the students in learning and education … I feel like every day I want to run to someone and say, ‘Listen to this thing we did today I was never able to do before.’”

For example, Schroeder, who teaches German, records kids doing various activities.

“And I can see the way they process things, and I really love that. The other day, we made a music video … they had to act out the lyrics of the song,” she said.

Students in a freshman class who were learning Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” on the computers said the new system makes it easier and more fun to learn.

“We sort of take notes on-line instead of having a notebook. We can have on-line binders,” said student Taylor Spalding.

“I kind of like class a little bit more now that we have computers,” Bell said. “It’s not the same boring writing on paper.”

The digital conversion has not taken place at Cincinnati Christian’s Dixie Highway campus for elementary students; that is still being determined, Diefenbacher said.