Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer

Notes from 1:1 Laptop Project Videoconference: Chaminade

These are my notes from a videoconference today with educators and students at Chaminade Preparatory School in St Louis and Bishop McGuinness High School in Oklahoma City . Chaminade is a 6-12 Catholic school and has been doing a 1:1 laptop learning program for seven years. This videoconference was an opportunity for about 14 educators at Bishop McGuinness (who are embarking on a student 1:1 program) to learn from 4 educators and administrators, and 2 students from Chaminade about their experiences, lessons learned, advice for others on 1:1 learning, etc. I did record audio from this session and pending review approval from Chaminade will share it here as a podcast.

Had some problems with Toshiba laptops in the past
– IBM let them setup their own repair center in-house
– IBM pays us to do our own repairs

All teachers are now above the “novice” level
– 99% of teachers are now using the laptops for instruction

School had labs with desktop computers installed first, but never had mobile carts

Why go 1:1
– needs of students in the future
– society in general: students needing to get comfortable and familiar with the tools of everyday life
– the lab environment didn’t provide enough opportunities for students to
– our students tend to be more organized when they have the same computer at home and at school

Ways for incorporating into Spanish class
– letting students get visual connections to places
– the tactile element has been big: the more
– used for tutorials, teaching lesson on the board
– going to the laptop for practice and remediating

Using ExamView has been big
– a secure exam website
– teacher spends time creating the exams, and students take it on the laptop, scored immediately and sent to the teacher

Use audacity to create the lesson and share it with students
– about 30% of the kids did not use textbooks this year for Spanish
– most of the students next year will not buy a textbook
– my textbook is available online, and most students seem to like having it available electronically

Training that teachers received prior to getting the laptops, and ongoing laptops
– also the just in time training that is available ALL the time has been key
– learning to use peripherals, programs, and more

During a given day, about 50% of many days laptops are in use
– with high schools, you have to get over the intitial few months when kids really want to play games
– kids have to take responsibility, sign a contract

Tech dept has worked to secure desktops and

“There will never be a technological solution for a classroom management problem”

Have suggested to teachers if you are lecturing, lecture from the back of the room, keep

Our experiences with remote desktop on the Windows side have been poor
– giving teachers more management roles in the classroom is challenging
– it is like students bringing a magazine inside their book
– tools need to be provided for teachers and administrators

Looking at test scores: we have always had high scores
– looking to see if our scores (ACT) in the median range have gone up is hard
– 99% of our students go to college, 85-90% get scholarships
– our scores have stayed the same

The laptop really doesn’t teach the skills of an ACT test
– the classes do, and laptops can enhance it, but the laptop doesn’t directly develop the skills of the ACT or SAT
– if the college board ever goes to an electronic test, our students will have a BIG advantage

Most of other local high schools have adopted 1:1 learning projects
– are 25 other private schools within a 20 mile radius

Have a 3 and a 4 year lease programs: $850 per year
– students can walk home after the 3 year program
– lease pays for everything: insurance, software licenses, etc.
– reason we build it into the cost: you can buy some things cheaper, but you have to make sure when the student walks away with their laptop they need to have a laptop they can use and is functional
– insurance covers everything except theft

Student perspectives
– laptops expedite lots of things in the classroom
– many assignments are available via the Internet
– projects are facilitated, lots of organization benefits
– some textbooks are still being used
– communication between teachers and students is really facilitated
– being able to see your grade each day really helps: knowing due dates, when you are missing something
– being able to see notes that teachers are posting is really helpful

I go through 2 full batteries during the day, so I can be on my laptop 100% of the

most batteries just have a 1 year lifespan, so we figured that in our lease program
– in 2nd year, we hand out another one in November
– the last year of the lease, the gamble is that the 2 batteries together will get students through
– into the 4th year, parents may have to purchase

Batteries are now an expendable product, schools need to plan for battery replacement long term

If teachers don’t monitor students, they do play games during class
– if students are bored, however, they do play games

Certain websites are blocked by the

School does use turnitin.com

Have had some teachers who just wanted to move worksheets into the digital environment
– those teachers have been encouraged / moved to more collaborative work
– 1:1 learning can help move teachers to another level of teaching (moving traditional teachers to more collaborative

Some Calculus teachers are now actually stopping students from taking notes during class, but instead focusing on the math methods being discussed

Also use “Windows Rights Management”
– makes a log to show when documents were created
– so documentation trail for files exists
– if a faculty member believes a violation has taken place, these logs are available to view
– had a lot of those issues about 2 years ago, but those have really died down

the busywork assignments are still being emailed around, but fewer teachers are assigning those so the amount of plagiarism has gone down as a result

Tech staff averages 50 to 100 laptops per day they work on
– they keep about 15% of laptop inventory for spares
– many of those could be 30 to 60 second issues
– can ghost a machine (reimage it) in about 35 min, we tell students it will take an hour to give some buffer time

Students turn computers in on “book days”
– that is 1 week before orientation starts
– students
– generally we don’t upgrade software during the year
– the image gets built and it pretty set in stone for the year

Teaching styles play into student performance
– also student learning styles
– some kids seem to still do better with hard copy printouts

Things they would do differently
– educate the teachers better up front
– the success of this program doesn’t depend on the IT department or the network, it depends on how well the teachers can use it, buy into it, and manage it
– was a NYT article of a horror story a few years ago, but if you read it carefully you can tell they didn’t implement it correctly in the classroom before the laptops rolled out to students
– most important: education for teachers
– we are doing a great job now, esp with a fulltime instructional technology person
– we didn’t have someone to go to 7 years ago to get advice

Listening to other schools is another great tool for what you can learn

Another lesson: we initially just went with Frontpage and static webpage
– when we went to a portalized environment, that really enhanced things for us
– that seemed to be much easier than using Frontpage
– from an institutional standpoint
– that gave a consistent look and feel to the websites for teachers, that really helped
– online grades have really helped
– some kids seem to check their grades about 7 times per day (sometimes more often)

One of the best aspects is being able to check

When subs came
– students can run pretty independently, and subs can take attendance and moderate the class
– some more advanced teachers are actually testing students when subs are there
– there is NO REASON that any student (grade 6-12) doesn’t have access to assignments, instructions, etc.

Letting students have immediate access to class notes
– are looking next year at recording teacher lectures via podcasts for next year, and screencasting
– goal of speeding up class, making learning more efficient, and ultimately impacting student learning

instructional technology specialist works 1:1 with new teachers
– early in the year, there is some large group workshops
– most of that initial time is to convey the culture of what we are doing here
– after 1-2 weeks, then grunt work training begins: email, entering grades, etc.
– tech specialist visits classes, also talks on cell phone at night
– many, many teachers are helping each other all the time too

Administration pairs new teachers up with a mentor in their own department, they also have their dept head to rely on

You’ll always have some people way ahead, and way behind
– teachers naturally team up with other teachers
– esp when less tech saavy teachers do that
– this has been evolutionary, has taken 4 years to get almost all tests online

Our school network is rock solid, the uptime has been better than what a prior-Boeing employee experienced

“a good teacher is always prepared”

kids are now comfortable for a few minutes when it takes some time for the teacher to get things up and going at the start of class

Teachers are now VERY self-sufficient

All of a sudden as a teacher, you have NO PAPER
– everything is one laptop to another
– students email things back and forth

Student comment: I’ve never had a single class since 8th grade where the technology caused us to stop the lesson (since 8th grade, the student is now finishing 11th grade)

Even when we lost power for a half day, learning

Technology staffing: as you start using and learning more, you learn there are more things you can do it
– we are staffed for the repair center adequately with 2 people, and the 15% loaners
– I have now about 40 loaners, which is about 5% (for 980 students)

computer cost is over and above tuition

Microsoft licensing: $72 per student (factored over 3 or 4 years)
Examview is another example: $2000 for site license for online testing, everyone
– lease cost now includes $55 per student per year for software licensing
– the school picks up the rest for site licensing, and for tools that are used in the classroom
– also charge a $50 fee in the lease for imaging over the summer

3 year lease on new Mac was going to be $2300
– that does not include insurance, battery

have not gone out for bid, have gone right to the manufacturer
– it is hard to move away from a manufacturer when you are invested with a

Students are moving constantly with their machines, this is a VERY different environment that what laptops were designed for

The laptop becomes a tool to the students, and they treat it accordingly
– you can really tell a difference between new and experienced students

Do not currently have smartboards in any classrooms, but do now have projectors in every classroom
– that was a transition, initially we had large screen TVs in classrooms
– smartboard technology is an old technology that has been around about 10 years: you are confined to a certain area and are always blocking someone’s view
– if a teacher really likes the smartboard, give the teacher a tablet PC
– the cost is about the same or cheaper to go to a tablet
– classrooms are different sizes, and one size doesn’t fit all, they should be custom fitted
– compare that to painting a wall and projecting a computer image there, in terms of cost and function

How has this affected the counseling program?
– with software program we use, it has been a big impact
– all data that concerns a student or his family, it is in the system
– can grant limited or full access to teachers for those
– are using college placement software, Naviance

June 21-22 laptop conference at Chaminade

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