Reaching Heights: What is the One-to-One Initiative?
Dr. Joseph Micheller: The Teaching and Learning with Technology initiative is designed to prepare students for their future, a world of digital technology, global information, and instant communication. The initiative is designed to more fully engage students by providing resources that are meaningful and useful to them, specifically Apple MacBook laptop computers. Increasing access to technology is essential for that future and laptops, within a wireless learning environment, help students to learn in deep and meaningful ways that prepare them for productive participation in a global economy.
RH: What is the timeline for this initiative?
JM: We’re currently in year two of a five-year implementation process, one that has the full support of the superintendent and Board of Education. We’re taking the time to plan correctly and to let everybody know the various stages of the implementation - the beginning, middle, and end product, which is improved teaching and learning for our students. Last year we focused on planning and professional development for middle school teaching staff. Our in-house technology specialists have been working with teachers. We’ve done this without adding any new positions, but by reconfiguring existing staff. Monticello teachers received their laptops in November 2007. Roxboro and Wiley teachers received their laptops last spring. We’ve had a significant amount of professional development since these roll outs. On Oct. 1, eighth graders at Monticello received laptops equipped with educational software, links to items in their curricula, and access to the District’s internal intranet. Monticello seventh graders received their laptops Oct. 6, Monticello sixth graders on Oct. 13; eighth graders at Roxboro and Wiley will receive laptops later this school year, on dates that work with the schools’ calendars.
RH: How does this initiative improve instruction and prepare our students for the world they’ll graduate into?
JM: To become gainfully employed in today’s world and realize success in a global economy requires our students to learn skills that were not as critical a generation ago. They’ll need to know how to work in teams and interact with multiple cultures, and how to use problem-solving analytic skills. We’re not claiming that these skills will automatically be taught because we have new technology. The technology helps us do a much better job fostering these skills than we could in a cloistered classroom with a traditional textbook.
RH: How can parents help the initiative succeed?
JM: Our parents will play a key role in the success of our technology initiative. On a practical level, simple responsibilities such as making sure the laptop batteries are charged at night are important. More broadly, we hope our parents/guardians see this as a chance to learn with their kids.
RH: Will students be able to take the laptops home?
JM: Students will have access to the laptop both at school and at home for the entire school year, provided that their parent or guardian attends one of the presentations the District is holding on Internet safety, proper care of the laptop, and use of the carrying bag we’re providing. Students whose parents or guardians do not attend one of these sessions can use the laptop at school, but may not take it home. Some parents may also decide that they do not want their child to bring a laptop home. Students in this circumstance will be able to use a laptop during school hours, but must return it at the end of each day.
RH: How soon might digital textbooks replace printed versions?
JM: It’s going to take a while. Some publishers have online or interactive versions or PDF files of some textbooks, and we’ve loaded some of them into the laptops. For example, eighth graders at Monticello are using online text and resources for Connected Mathematics, and a pdf version of their social studies text. Some textbooks aren’t available in those formats yet. Remember, the changes we’re talking about go beyond computer use to much greater online access to information.
RH: How does getting information online differ from reading a printed textbook?
JM: There are two major differences: timeliness and scope. No matter how quickly a publisher generates a textbook, the information is anywhere from six months to several years old by the time that book is in a classroom. And we use textbooks for a number of years, so by the time we’re at the end of a textbook’s life cycle, you’ve got to wonder if it’s even worth the time to look at that information. It will take time to get away from this process, but it’s worth making the change. Even more important is the scope of authentic information that students can get beyond the textbook. That’s where we’re doing a lot of our professional development. For example, if a science class is looking at the concept of weather ― maybe the wave patterns of wind going over a prairie versus a mountain ― there are a number of sources with real life weather information available through our high speed Internet access. No longer do teachers have to invent everything on their own. High quality online lesson plans are available that are tied to state standards through the Ohio Department of Education, the Smithsonian Institution, and others. The Smithsonian’s American Memory project provides digitized authentic historical artifacts, media and lesson plans. We’re starting to work with teachers to index some of these resources. It’s about bringing in global knowledge.
RH: What kinds of global connections might be possible?
JM: One example is our District’s growing Chinese partnerships. Students in our classrooms can connect with students in China (or anywhere else that has high speed Internet access), essentially in real time, share information, collaborate on experiments and evaluate results, and learn more about each other’s culture in the process.
RH: On a more mundane level, what happens if a student loses his or her laptop?
JM: If a student loses his or her computer, we have insurance. We’re emphasizing the importance of how students use their laptops, how they put them in the carrying bags that come with them, how and where to store them. If a student misuses it, that’s investigated just as it would be if a student misused a trombone or a printed textbook or any other learning tool. We want to make sure students understand that the laptop they receive is the same one they’ll use for the next several years, which is an incentive to take care of it. They will get the same one back next school year that they have this year. We want to build a sense of responsibility.
RH: Thank you.