Laptop 1 to 1 - Our Story

Before 1 to 1 laptops.

Last year I was teaching Algebra 1 with cognitive tutor software from Carnegie Learning. In order to teach the class I had ordered a set of laptops in a cart for the class. About two months into the school year a student asked me if she could borrow a laptop to complete a project for a another class. After speaking with her I realized that while most students had access to a computer at home it had issues.

Most times there was only one computer in the house that was shared by all the family members. This limited a students ability to use the technology when needed. The computers that they had at home did not have the same software as what they used at school. This made it difficult or impossible to complete a project at home. The computer that they had at home also may have been several years old, slow and potentially full of viruses.

Students started to learn about the opportunity to borrow laptops and soon the laptop cart was looking very empty every night.

Another part of my job was to help teachers to leverage technology to improve student learning in the classroom. A second laptop cart was purchased so that we could do Professional Development with the teachers. We held several PD sessions during the school day and I began working with the teachers in their PLC (Professional Learning Communities). I also held Saturday sessions once a month where teachers could work with each other for extended periods of time. We learned that a 40 minute PLC, once a week did not allow for completion of an NEW learning activity where they could walk out with something they could use in their classroom.

A second set of laptops was purchased to trial the idea of allowing students to carry the laptops full time. These students met with me for an additional our on Wednesday after school where we would explore different ways they could use the laptops to complete assignments in class.  This ended up being a great way to get technology into the classrooms. These students were not all in the same class or even the same grade level. There might be the only student in some classes that had a laptop. The students began to adapt there assignments and utilize the laptop to complete their assignments, take notes in class, or even research information on the fly during a discussion. Students were taking assignments and completing them with the laptops instead of paper. The students used the laptops to do additional work on there own that they were interested in and to communicate with each other and their teachers.

As the school year ended, the students that were using the laptops asked if they could use them over the summer. We were able to allow students to borrow the laptops over the summer to continue their work on different projects.

At the start of this school year we purchased enough laptops so that every full time student could carry one all the time. By the third week in September all the laptops were imaged, setup and placed into the hands of the students.
 
We are now just completing the third quarter of the year. During this time we have seen tremendous growth in the students and teachers ability to use the laptops. We have seen increased communication between teachers and students via email. Students can reach out to teachers from anywhere when they have a question. Students also now have another way to voice the questions or concerns to teachers with out interrupting a class or having to physically locate the teacher in the building.

Some students have started exploring alternative things they are interested in learning.  They are taking courses via iTunes University.  Some are taking courses via moodle that are taught at our other schools.

These changes are causing changes for teachers in their classroom. No longer are teachers the dispenser of knowledge. They have started to become more of a guide in the process of learning. This is causing classrooms to start to move towards more projects and student centered learning.

Students are reading more on the computers. We have started to see increased gains in Lexile scores that we believe are the result of the student reading more on the laptops. They have access to the information they want to read all the time and so they have been reading more. The use of email and chat has also caused them to write more often.

There have also been some issues along the way. Trying to keep 300 laptops up to date with all the latest software updates for each program was taking time since the students did not have administrator rights on the laptops. We have recently install puppet and munki to help automate the process of configuration and software updates. We believe that this will minimize the support issues due to out of date software.

This has also allowed us to implement a new program to help guide the students on how to be responsible digital citizens. This new set of educational programs and procedures will be rolled out in the forth quarter of this year. The new system has different levels (Gold,Green,Yellow,Orange and Red) that the students will move between as they demonstrate they can use the technology appropriately.

This new system was developed by the teachers, administrators, and students. We held several meetings with the student council to get their input on how to shape the program. The students have had some great ideas that I believe will make the program much more effective.

We will be holding Saturday sessions with the teachers to discuss the success and challenges with using the laptops this year in their classes. We will be developing sets of long term and short term goals so that we can align our PLC sessions and PD.

The teachers and students have found new ways to learn using the laptops. As I look around at the laptop screens on a typical day you will see:

• Students taking notes in Curio or MSword.
• Looking up information on google.
• math problems being completed in Kahn Academy
• students using Cognitive Tutor.
• working with Read 180
• learning Spanish with Rosetta Stone.
• Chatting with classmates or teachers about homework assignments.
• Posting on Moodle or working on an assessment.

 The speed of change has been very fast this year and thanks to the support of the administration, the understanding of teachers, and the enthusiasm of the students. All of this would not be possible with out everyone's hard work!

OneToOne Impacts - Students in the drivers seat!!

This week I had several messages from students. Some came as an email, some as a moodle message, some in conversation. All the messages told me about the impact of the laptops on their learning.

In the past students only used technology when they had a specific assignment in a class and the teacher gave them time to work on it in one of the computer labs.  But now they have access to the technology ALL the time. They can use it when they want. The power has shifted from the teachers to the students.

Here are some of the things I heard from students this week:

"I just completed unit 6-6 in tutor" (Math tutor software)
"My restaurant just made a profit!" (Virtual Restaurant Simulator)
"I am working on Khan Academy to learn trig."
"I want to learn about web design."
"I want to learn how to make an app."

These students were completing work that was not assigned as homework, because they wanted to accomplish a goal! They are starting to see learning as a reward in itself not just a grade.

I have several other students that are going to be starting a class on HTML web design. It is not in their schedule, they are not looking for a grade, they want to learn! They are going to be completing a course developed by another teacher (in moodle) from one of our other schools. They came to me and asked for this class, it is not a requirement.

The laptops are placing a wealth of learning opportunities in front of our students. Now we need to help teach them how to find and learn without a classroom! Or do we need to help our teachers learn to teach with out the walls of the classroom? How will teachers teach classes that are not on their schedule?

"Just using the technology"

This is our first year of a one-to-one laptop program in our school. Lately it seems that I am being told a story by a teacher or a student and I realize that it would have been different without the technology. Everyone is "just using the technology" and they don't even realize how it has impacted their learning.

The stories that I hear contain information about better communication between students, between students and teachers but the people telling the story are focusing on the results not the technology that made it work. This reminds me of the impact I experienced in industry when email became widespread. Can you imagine writing a memo, photo copying it and having it placed into the mail box? We don't do this in the "real world" anymore so why would this be the way we communicate in school?

I have heard of students emailing teachers questions about their assignments and getting answers that have helped them to complete the assignment. This has allowed students and teachers to communicate with out having to search the halls of the school to find them to ask a question and get an answer.

Students are starting to take advantage of their own down time. I have seen some students look to see what they would be learning about in their next class by looking at the teacher's moodle site. Sometimes they have even began to think about or complete the do now before they enter the classroom.

Students are now able to carry almost all of the resources for all their classes all the time! It's all in the laptop. This has allowed students to review information or jot down a thought about a topic at anytime during the school day.

The challenge now is to invision what would our school look like today if the technology went away?

Impact of Laptops,Email,Moodle on one students learning over the Holidays (Breaking down the Walls of the Classroom)

One student shared with me her story of how the laptop changed their Holiday break. She traveled home to vist her family over the break. This ment that she had to travel to another county. Due to the extended travel and cost she was going to miss several days of school in December and January.

In the past she would ask her teachers for all the assignments she needed to complete while she was gone. This did not always work very well. The teachers had to prepare what they planned on covering during this time. This was a large amount of information for teachers to pull together and prone to errors. Resources might be missing, assignments might be confusing, assignments might have changed based on what happend in class. If the student got confused about what was required she might not be able to complete follow on assignments.

This year was very different for her. She took her laptop with her during her travels. Teachers emailed her information about the class or when assignments needed to change. She was also able to keep in contact with the class and ask questions of the other students in class in addition to the teacher. She was able to access the class moodle sites and pull additional information as needed. In past years she needed to make sure she had every possible resource with her, which was not always possible. This year if she was missing something she was able to use the internet, her classmates or the teacher to get those resources when she needed them.

This also had an interesting affect on teachers. In the past they needed to prepare everything that the student might need. This year they could send the information in real time to the student as if she was in the classroom. This year when she returned to school she only had a couple of assignments that she needed to make up. Her stress level about returning to school was much lower. 

Technology had enabled her to extend the classroom walls and include her in the work that was happening in school. 

One final thought/question.

- How does this impact the "seat time" requirements of the traditional classroom?

Why One To One Laptop Computers in School Make Sense vs. Desktop Installs.

1. Utilization of Computer Resources
2. Software Availability
3. Log in Time
4. User Customization.
5. Flexibility.

• Inefficiencies in scheduling cause most desktops to be utilized less then 240 minutes a day. Teachers are scheduled to teach 240 minutes a day and most teachers in our district have their own room. This means that these computers are idle when the teacher is not scheduled to teach a class. In the One To One laptop model students have constant access to a computer customized to their needs. These machines travel with the students so that they are used for the entire school day and in addition they are used at home to complete homework assignments. This leads to about a %200 percent increase in utilization.
• In order to achieve one to one computing in a desktop environment it is necessary to purchase many more machines due to the inefficiencies in scheduling rooms and class size. Currently rooms need to be set up with desktops equal to or greater then the maximum class size. This leads to rooms with computers that may not get used on a daily basis in every class. It also means that if one student is added to the class that additional electric, desks, network cables must be installed and setup.
• In a desktop model computers in certain classes may have specialized software installed on them such as graphic design software. In order for students to work on assignments they need access to this software. Currently they only have access in that class to that software, or the district must purchase and install software for all desktops. In a one to one laptop model the software is purchased on the needs of the students classes. It can be installed on their laptop and then taken with them where ever they need it. This allows students to work on their assignments outside of class. This also gives them more opportunities to learn how to use the software. In more affluent school districts parents could purchase the software and computers for the students to use at home. This places most of our students at a great disadvantage.
• In the current desktop model students have to log on to computers in each class and log out at the end of class. This process averages about 5 minutes per class depending on the computers and network performance. If a student has 6-8 classes a day and they were to try to use the computers in every class this could waste 30-40 minutes a day! In a one to one laptop model students can leave their computers logged in and just close the lid between classes. This allows their computers be be available to be used in about 15-30 seconds. It also significantly decreases the spikes in network traffic when all students try to log on as the bell rings.
• In the current desktop model, if someone does not turn the computers each day and make sure that general maintenance is done (Software updates) students may not be able to use the computers when they need them. They could have out of date versions of programs or even the operating system. In a one to one model students will be using their computer all the time, this will minimize the amount of time wasted doing software updates.
• In a one to one laptop model users can customize their computer to fit their needs and preferences. This allows the users to quickly access the information they need in the way that they prefer to see it. In a desktop model the computers do not retain settings for each user and they do not transfer to other computers when they log on. This forces all users to use the computers in a way that is not the most efficient for them.
• One to One laptops also offer flexible learning environments. The computers travel with the students so that they are always available to be used like paper and a pencil. In a desktop model careful planning is key to being able to use the resources. Room layout in a one to one laptop model can change based on the needs of the lesson. Desktop computers are much less flexible and typically can not be moved.

Sharing as a MORAL obligation of teachers.

I have been thinking about the K12online preconference keynote this weekend and what it means to me and the teachers I work with everyday. It got me thinking about what can I do to share more.

I decided to try a recommendation that I learned during the keynote. I started a diigo account and began by sharing my existing bookmarks. I also began working with the other teachers in my school to set up their own accounts. Sharing bookmarks seems to be a low risk environment to begin the process of sharing with other teachers.

I also spoke with several administrators and encouraged them to start blogging and sharing their own reflections. I think this will take some training and encouragement before they are willing to take the risk.

Do your school administrators blog? If they do please post a link here in the comments.

District Wide Training for Teachers and Staff Completed.

We have just completed a two day training class on moodle and Google apps for education. Everyone had the chance to attend four three hour sessions. The session titles were:

1. Basic moodle - Setting up a class and learning to share resources.
2. Advanced moodle - Learning how to use moodle to assess student learning.
3. Google email - Learning how to use email, calendars and groups.
4. Google docs - Learning how to create, share and collaborate using documents and sites.

It was fantastic to see over 50% of the teachers give up two days of their summer to come and learn with each other. The level of energy that I felt in each of the 6 classrooms was phenomenal.

Looking back at the survey results and feedback from everyone here are some of the major learning's:

• The six hours for the Google mail and docs sessions was a perfect amount of time. People had time to play around with and use the various tools. Overall people had a high level of success.
• The six hours for moodle was not enough time to become a master on the topics. People had time to see and understand what moodle is, but more time is needed to support the development of resources and assessments in moodle.
• Some people need more help in authoring content to be placed on their moodle class site. (Creating PDFs, converting image formats, editing video, screen casting, podcasting, etc.)
• Since all staff and students will have access to Google Apps it provides a common platform will everyone can communicate. (Students did not have access to exchange.)
• Using mini-lessons helped everyone to see how to use the tools in a classroom/school environment.
• People felt the training was more valuable because the training was provided by teachers in the district.
• Some people felt that smaller bits of this training over time would be more effective.
• When doing moodle training in the future we need to make sure to tell teachers to bring class resources that they could use to build their class.
• Moodle training needs to be broken up into much smaller sections. Let the people experience the part of the tool, let them create using the tool, let them test each others tools.
• Training needs to better group people by ability and readiness to learn a topic.
• Need to continue training process with support during the school year.
• People enjoying the engaging nature and structure of the classes.
• Having support instructors in each class would be helpful to deal with issues in the class.