The Learning with Laptops Program began at Duchesne Academy because of our determination to close the gender gap in technological fluency, and in order to enhance and update the learning experience across the entire curriculum. To prepare our students to live in an increasingly technological and global world we successfully executed a four-year plan to equip students with laptops and technology beginning in January 1998. To prepare for this we equipped all faculty with notebook computers and installed a campus-wide 802.11b wireless network. By August 1998, students in grades 7, 9 and 10 began using laptops and network resources in their classes. At that time we were one of two schools in the city to implement a 1:1 computer program with our students. Currently we are one of five schools in Houston, Texas to offer 1:1 computing with all Middle and Upper School students.
More important than the actual laptops was that we began a stringent program of computer technologists working along-side classroom teachers to develop curriculum and integrate computer technology and place increased emphasis on our students’ mastery of analytical skills, computer concepts, and innovative uses for technology across a range of problems and subjects. Since that time our girls have been using computer technology in all aspects of their learning from the bare essentials of taking notes and writing papers, communicating with teachers and each other via email, and accessing spontaneous research from their desks to using electronic textbooks, presenting elaborate multimedia presentations in all courses, using concept mapping tools for brainstorming and outlining essays, diagramming sentences in language arts, manipulating spreadsheets and using geometry programs in mathematics, using software for writing music notation, filming and editing video essays, and creating subject specific websites. One example of how one curriculum has most changed by this technology has to be in foreign language. There they have incorporated software and websites to enhance instruction such as students being able to listen to live foreign radio, access foreign press, practice their speaking skills by utilizing the record feature and independently advance their grammar skills using websites and excel. Another example of a course that has greatly benefited from the laptop program is science. Students are now able to collect and analyze real-time scientific data in science with their probeware and continue their analysis at home on their laptop. They are also able witness scientific simulations and watch graphing models in live-time which they could not do before because of dangerous chemical reactions. They are also now able to use electronic workbooks which track their work, questions about the material and alert the teacher to specific problems that a student may be having.
Because of our Learning with Laptops program it became imperative that we also create our student helpdesk called the CAVE (Computer/Audio Visual Emergencies). In the helpdesk students are trained as computer technicians where they learn to diagnose and repair software and hardware malfunctions and assist both students and faculty with computer problems. To date we have trained 126 student technicians, and have been recognized on the state level for our performance in the 2005 TestOut Challenge with one of our students who placed first on the CompTIA A+ Hardware test and became a fully Certified A+ Technician. Our student helpdesk has handled over 10,000 documented repairs since its inception in August 1998.
Most recently we have updated our program from the use of laptop computers to using Tablet PC’s. This decision was made because of the amazing tool they offer for our students. Tablet PC’s not only offer benefits for different learning styles, but allow the technology to become more invisible in the classroom, because they are smaller and can lay flat. Teachers and students are working together this year and last to find better ways to use the Tablets in the classrooms. Much of the excitement with the Tablets is in math and science class where our students are now better able to use scientific notation and incorporate diagrams and formulas into their work. Another discipline that is taking full advantage of the Tablet PC is in Middle School art, where our sixth graders are using the technology to explore color, texture and other media before working on their “real” project. This allows for far more experimentation that we would not have been able to afford with traditional methods.
Our Learning with Laptops Program has definitely paid off in that our students are now more organized; more engaged in their learning and are using PCs and the Internet as an instructional tool to support inquiry and discovery in the classroom. Particular benefits are experienced by students identified with learning disabilities because they are able to have their individual learning styles met by using technology, enabling many of them to keep pace with the rest of the class. Another great benefit of the program is the continual stream of learning that the personal laptop allows. Student have the use of one computer that they can personalize and use anytime, anywhere they go, without having to deal with software conflicts and documents saved to the wrong computer. It really becomes their ally, their tool for work.
Our Learning with Laptops Program is not about how much hardware we can accumulate, but about working diligently so that our students acquire all the benefits of technology in their education, without it being all about technology.
