Some Push Schools to Put Computers in Front of All Students

Last of three parts

Delafield Nestled amid 180 leafy acres, the gray wood-slat buildings, tennis courts and walking paths that make up University Lake School better resemble a ritzy summer camp than high-tech hub.

Yet buzzing through its facilities are wireless laptop computers enough for every student and teacher in grades six through 12 a 5- year-old venture that is part of an experiment known in education circles as one-to-one, or ubiquitous, computing.

At a time when the results from the country’s massive investment in school technology have been criticized as tepid, and school officials are worried about being able to afford what they have, supporters say the answer lies not in backing off but in going further.

For them, putting a laptop, personal digital assistant or some other piece of Internet-accessible technology in the hand of every student is the next step for schools.

"How much writing would get done in schools if students had to share pencils and paper?" said Christopher Dede, a Harvard University professor in learning technologies. "The answer is not much.’ . . . I think that’s part of what has happened with technology right now."

This is the thinking: Where students otherwise might have only one hour a week in which they can access a computer, limiting them to rudimentary uses, a student with constant contact with technology would use it all the time maybe even take it home and use it in more complex ways. Where teachers now have to modify lessons and expectations based on their limited access to technology, or their students’ abilities, with one-to-one computing they can begin removing those barriers and will be able to innovate.

A handful of schools are testing that premise.

Henrico County Public Schools, outside of Richmond, Va., became the largest school district in the nation to implement one-to-one computing in its middle and high schools when it handed out more than 25,000 laptops beginning in 2001. The Maine Learning Technology Initiative provided a laptop to all seventh- and eighth-graders in that state in 2002.

Early research into the one-to-one initiatives has found positive reactions from students, parents and staff toward the more widespread availability of computers.

However, more quantitative measures, such as test-score improvements, have not been as readily apparent.

Some say the research isn’t there to justify such a massive investment in more school computers. Most studies have found that technology has only a limited impact on student learning, with much of the effect because of the teachers involved and how they embrace the use of the computer.

The Prairie School in Racine needs some convincing on whether a one-to-one program makes sense in its current curriculum and to the teachers who will be charged with using them. The school is considering such a move, even though its technology coordinator is hesitant.

"The research on computers and how it affects learning is pretty mixed," said Galen Steig, a science teacher at Prairie who also is the coordinator. "The statistics aren’t there to say computers make a difference."

A leapfrog to somewhere else’

Perhaps a bigger barrier than having to rely on fledgling research is the cost involved with providing every student with a computer.

With $240,000 budgeted yearly, the 250-student University Lake School spends as much on hardware as Nicolet High School does for nearly six times as many students. And while few schools can afford to embark on a one-to-one laptop program, some have tried out the concept on a more limited scale.

At Burdick School on Milwaukee’s southeast side, so-called digital middle school classrooms feature a computer for every student desktops in one room, laptops in another.

The school’s general music classroom also features rows of desktop computers connected to keyboards, which students use for composing.

"Sometimes the software is kind of a leapfrog to somewhere else," said Dan Hennessey, an eighth-grade teacher who has had students work on everything from movies to laser lightshows. "But you don’t know where it’s going to take you."

University Lake still fields questions from parents about whether the laptop program is worth the expense of incorporating it in tuition costs that are running at $12,670 for the upper grades next year. School officials say they’re committed.

If you walk down the single hallway of classrooms at University Lake School’s Upper School, computers are hard to miss.

There they are, covers flipped up, with students typing away during an English class while two students are giving a PowerPoint presentation at the front of the classroom. In a lounge area where study hall is held, the laptops also are getting a workout.

Students at University Lake School, known more casually as ULS, use their laptops for most school functions. Taking notes and writing essays are probably the most common. They e-mail teachers, follow classroom assignments and track their grades, and do research on the Internet. They can even download notes from classes they might have missed.

"Microsoft has absolutely taken over this school," said Sean Wallace, a sophomore last school year at ULS who was in middle school when the laptop program was introduced.

Wallace is not your typical high school student when it comes to a computer.

Hooked at age 7 when he broke his leg and turned to his father’s laptop for entertainment, Wallace now gets work rebuilding other people’s computers. He also has developed a reputation as the next person to call if you can’t find the technology director when your school computer crashes.

But although every student at ULS isn’t like Wallace, many say they have grown dependent on the computers that their school offers.

"I think it would be very, very hard if they took the laptops away for a lot of us," said Geoff Achtenhagen, another sophomore.

Katie Wietzel, who was a junior last school year when she was forced to retake a test after her original was lost in the computer system, paints a different picture of her school’s reliance on computers.

"They’re not really integrated into what we do in the class," said Wietzel, who also prefers to take notes by hand rather than on her laptop. "It’s just if you need to type something."

Content still reigns

As in many schools, use of the technological equipment at ULS varies by teacher and by subject. The laptops are used extensively for taking notes or writing papers for English class and conducting Internet searches in history. But they get far less application in science and math classes, students and school officials admit.

That’s OK with Brad Ashley, who just finished his third year as ULS’ head of school.

"We know that a key part of education is communicating, problem- solving, team-building, working on things together," Ashley said. "In fact, I would argue that instruction in the classroom doesn’t have to change at all. It might use the computer very little."

The technology hasn’t forced teachers to give up content or change instructional practices, Ashley said. But it has made them think a little differently.

"Technology, even as sophisticated as our technology is, it’s still just a tool," he said.

In Upper School teacher Nate Smith’s class, the classroom technology primarily comes in handy with visual demonstrations of some of the more abstract concepts in mathematics or physics.

Web sites can show students in his pre-calculus class how a plane slicing through a cone creates an ellipse or how the points of an ellipse plot out on a graph.

"We were kind of nervous at first and unsure what the expectations would be," said Smith, who started at the school just as the laptops were being handed out to students. "But really it’s been great."

The school is still working to master its technological capabilities, particularly when it comes to greater classroom use of what it has. But every year the teachers see the technical proficiency of their students grow, and graduates report back from college they are often sought out in their dorms for computer- related questions.

That’s not to say, however, that the technology has overtaken the content.

"I do think it’s essential that they (students) need to be computer savvy," Upper School history teacher Maureen Conklin said. But, she added, "I don’t think they need laptops to develop the skills that I as a history teacher want them to learn. I don’t think they need laptops to gain a command of the content that I hope they would learn."

THIS SERIES

Sunday: Public money has fueled a technological explosion in Wisconsin public schools. But has education improved?

Monday: With taxpayer funding drying up, school districts are trying to figure out how to pick up the tab and whether it’s worth it.

TODAY: At a time when massive investments in school technology are coming under criticism, proponents say backing away is a huge mistake.

Online: Follow the series at www.jsonline.com. And for a video interview with University Lake School student Sean Wallace, go to www.jsonline.com/links/uls.

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