Review of State and National Laptop Initiatives - The Diigo Meta page

• 23 Jul 09
  

  Allison Gates
  • Each of the 450 students in Howard Middle School has been issued a laptop computer. The school serves grades five through eight. While individual teachers and students have experienced some successes with the laptops, overall this initiative provides more lessons learned for other schools that will be starting laptop programs. Initially, the laptops had little tool-based software that the teachers were made aware of. (Most teachers were not even aware that the laptops contained a word processor.) Instead, students were expected to utilize a number of web-based content and testing providers. The drill-and-practice exercises did little to raise student interest or achievement. Rather than reforming educational practices in the school, the laptops tended to reinforce existing, traditional methods of teaching. The lack of appropriate inservice training and the isolation of the school (Howard is the only middle school in the county) meant that teachers had very little direction aside from the vendor presentations supplied by the web-based content and testing service providers.
    
    Lessons learned:

  • Palm Beach County, Pine Crest School (Boca Raton)

    
    
    Pine Crest is a private school in Boca Raton. All seventh graders are required to carry their own wireless laptop to school. Seventh-graders must sign up for a one-day mandatory laptop training course.
    

    
    Costs: Pine Crest School parents must purchase the laptops for their children. The school is an authorized reseller for Gateway, IBM, and Dell laptops. Non-warranty repair provided by the school is charged at $50/hour. Student laptops must be dropped off at the school for configuration prior to the start of the school year. If they are dropped off before July, there is no fee for this service. Laptops dropped off in July incur a $100 "technology services fee." After July the fee rises to $250.
    
    
    
    

  • 1 more annotations...

  • • Minnesota, Mounds Park Academy

      
      
      According to a school profile on the Apple Education website, the curriculum at Mounds Park Academy "has received a radical, wireless-enabled upgrade that has empowered teachers and students to work anywhere within the school." All 300 students and faculty in the upper school use Apple iBooks. The teachers received their laptops in the spring of 2000, with the students receiving theirs in the fall of 2001. School administrators initially considered laptops to ease the heavy demand on the school's computer lab. After visiting other laptop schools, Bob Kreischer, the school's founder, realized that the laptops would also introduce innovative practices to the school and extend the school day into the home as students took their laptops home.
      

      
      The school's technology coordinator, Theresa Offerman, notes that the students "always have all of their 'stuff' with them, they're more organized, and they're not losing their assignments. Using the wireless iBooks has really changed the way everyone here thinks, as we're no longer confined to any one room or place."
      

      
      Outcomes:
      

      • Teachers note that the quality of student research has improved.
        
        
      • Students are devoting more time to their projects.
        
        
      • Communication between parents and teachers has been enhanced.
• 17 May 09
  

  Jeffrey Irvine

  Education technology in schools one-to-one programs Resources Starred

• 24 Nov 08
  

  Karen Ward
  • Many of these lessons
• 09 Oct 08
  

  dave zukor

  Review of State and National Laptop Initiatives

  imported Bookmarks_for_zukes site_visits technology 1:1 education laptops school

• 28 Mar 08
  

  Reggie Ryan

  Review of laptop initiative lesson

  1:1 management

  • Several laptop initiatives give their teachers laptop computers a semester or even a full year
    
    before their students so that the teachers can get comfortable with the capabilities of the
    
    computer and explore ways of integrating it into their curriculum. This practice could have
    
    eased the transition for the Howard faculty, many of whom stated that they had limited
    
    experience with computers and were very uncomfortable using them in the classroom.
  • Frequent parent night gatherings are critical to the program and keep the community informed. "Tech Time," a locally produced community access show, broadcasts iMovies and other student created projects to homes in the area. Parents and teachers note students are spending less time watching television and more time with sharing with their parents what they have learned using their laptops. Absences by students with laptops have declined by almost 40%.
  • 2 more annotations...
  • • While this implementation was limited in scope and much analysis remains to be done, it does suggest that a school consider carefully the teaching styles of its faculty when implementing a laptop program and designing the professional development to support it. It stands to reason that teachers who have been accustomed to playing the sage-on-a-stage may need additional assistance adjusting to their students having a device that empowers them to take more responsibility for their education and opens additional avenues of knowledge to them. Perhaps it's no accident that laptop implementations are often tied to school reform efforts.
    • The biggest problem has been insufficient infrastructure to connect so many laptops to the Internet. District officials say that problem will soon be solved.
• 30 Oct 07
  

  Tim McGee

  Profiles experiences of several dozen schools with laptop initiatives.

  education laptop Technology

• 18 May 06
  

  Mary Hall

  Review of State and National Laptop Initiatives from the laptops for Learning Task Force Report

  CFF

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