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Posted on December 7, 2010
The Urban School's Ubiquitous and Invisible Laptop Program
by James Rosso
At this San Francisco independent school, laptop computers play an integral role in all areas of the curriculum, supporting a student-centered, constructivist approach.
The Urban School is an independent college preparatory high school, founded in 1966, and located in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, California. It prides itself on being student-centered and innovative, with a diverse student body. Its goals are to produce self-motivated students who are enthusiastic about learning and are responsible, active citizens in their own communities. Over the past ten years Urban’s laptop program has been integral in achieving those goals.
One-to-One Program Basics
Since 2002, all Urban School students have participated in the one-to-one laptop program. Their annual laptop fee includes the lease of a laptop computer that they use at school and at home. All teachers have had laptops since 2000. Staff and administrators have both desktops and laptops to work with.
According to the vision statement and a philosophy that guides the school’s technology program, “Students use computer technology as a natural tool of the learning process. Computers are available to all students whenever and wherever they are needed – providing exponential advantages to learning over pen and paper tools. The result de-emphasizes the specialization of computer technology as use becomes seamless, ubiquitous, and normal.” Technology director Howard Levin feels that the best laptop program is the one that is hardly noticed; truly normal.
The laptop program is an essential component in the Urban School’s constructivist approach, which is based on the premise that students and faculty are responsible, intelligent, resourceful beings who can create knowledge and use it in novel and creative ways. The school web site lists five primary points in the laptop program philosophy:
- Every student has access to a similar functioning, modern computer for school and home.
- Student access to a computer will promote self-motivation and enthusiastic participation.
- The laptop program supports the Urban School Strategic Plan “to achieve a seamless integration of technology into the daily curriculum and through continued experimentation, add to our growing inventory of best practices.” It also fulfills the 1999 Technology Plan to fully integrate technology.
- Curriculum Innovation - The laptop initiative supports The Urban School's tradition as an innovative leader by moving forward with an integrated approach to technology use.
- Preparation for College and Careers - Computer use is required in nearly all university programs and professions, thus a natural and constant access in high school will better prepare students for this inevitable future.
The Urban School’s rich learning environment supports a number of technology-enabled projects including an award-winning student newsletter, The Urban Legend, and the online production, Telling Their Stories, which is a series of interviews with witnesses to the Holocaust, the Civil Rights Era, and survivors of Japanese internment camps.
Implementing the Program
Implementation of any new program can be challenging and the Urban School’s one-to-one program did not happen overnight. As Pamela Livingston reports in her book, 1-to-1 Learning: Laptop Programs that Work, it took nearly four years for Urban School to go from the initial laptop program proposal (in 1998) to final implementation.
As Livingston described it:
Teachers at The Urban School were first given laptops in 2000, and laptops for students were provided on mobile carts. This didn’t prove to be the best for students, however, and Levin now believes that students should have been given their own laptops from the beginning. The biggest initial challenge was simply getting the program started. At first, faculty members didn’t express a lot of interest; the majority of teachers seemed rather ambivalent about the laptop program, seeing it as more of a nuisance than a benefit. … Today, faculty members are nearly unanimous in their strong approval of the laptop program, and Urban’s biggest challenge is simply keeping up with laptop maintenance issues. When laptops are totally integrated into a school curriculum, all school assignments involve them, and timely repair and maintenance become crucial to learning outcomes. ‘If [students] lose the laptop for 15 minutes,’ Levin says, ‘that can be devastating.’
The skill and knowledge of the students was an advantage that The Urban School was able to utilize in setting up its one-to-one program. When the teachers were first issued their laptops, students were hired by the school during summer professional development workshops to help teachers work on technology-rich, project-based curriculum and to intercede if there was a problem. These student mentors were present only in an advisory capacity as it was considered important that the teachers be the only operators of their computers. In the process, the students learned a great deal about being teachers and vice versa.
Logistics
Today there are approximately 450 computers in use at this 350-student campus. To help keep the system going, there is a technology director, a director of information systems, and a help-desk support staff. The campus has settled on a single laptop platform since, according to Howard Levin, “having the students and the teachers all using a common laptop produces a community of support that is less possible in a multi-platform school.” The Apple computers used by students come with all of Apple’s free tools, such as iMovie and iPhoto, as well as other software including Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite, Apple iWork, Inspiration, and a host of other tools. In addition, the school encourages students to install and use additional software that will enhance their learning experience
The Urban School makes sure that everybody is clear about what responsibility students have for the laptop that they borrow. Students receive a ten-page document with instructions on care and behavior with the laptop and are expected to agree – by initialing and having their parents sign – to the following:
- I understand that I am responsible for backing up my own files and that important files should always be stored in at least two locations.
- I will not leave my laptop unattended unless it is locked in a secure place. My family is fully responsible for the cost of replacement should my laptop become lost or stolen.
- I understand that my family is financially responsible for the full cost if damage occurs due to my “gross negligence.”
- I will not install or use file-sharing programs to download music, video or other media.
- I will not duplicate nor distribute copyrighted materials other than a back-up copy of those items I legally own.
- I will keep the laptop lid fully closed whenever it is moved from one point to another.
- I will read and follow general maintenance alerts from school technology personnel.
- I will report any problems with my laptop to a member of the tech support staff in a timely manner.
- I have read the Equipment Lending Agreement, which gives students permission to check out other equipment, such as digital still and video cameras, and agree to those conditions.
Results
The Urban School web site links to the research of Saul Rockman, a professional researcher who has been investigating laptop one-to-one programs for many years. Some of Rockman’s conclusions are as follows:
Laptop students, more often than non-laptop students:
- engage in collaborative work;
- write better;
- engage in problem solving and critical thinking more often;
- participate in active learning;
- have better attitudes towards computers; and
- improve their research skills.
Teachers find that laptop students:
- are better researchers;
- learn more independently;
- have better skills at problem solving; and
- extend the school day.
These results can be seen on a daily basis at the Urban School. In Making the Laptop Disappear, a presentation that Levin has delivered at a number of conferences, he states, “If the goal of implementing laptops is ‘seamless integration,’ and if the tools bring with them capability far beyond anything that students and teachers have had in the past, then we need to look at the impact on learning.” He then goes on to look at five key factors that help learning -- organization, communication, information, conceptual understanding, and production – and show how all five of these are helped tremendously by ubiquitous access to laptops and the Internet.
According to the Urban School’s web site, the laptop program has the following positive effects:
- Improved Learning - Students can add software that is specific to the needs of that student. Customized technology promotes learning.
- Efficiency of Class Time – When a computer is well used it enables efficiency.
- Technology Skills – Working with the computer 24/7 enables the student to acquire a confidence and background with technology that will assist them in both college and the workplace.
- Diversity of Expression – There is computer software available to the student that will enable their specific academic and expressive needs.
- Instructional Flexibility – When students have their own laptop 24/7 they are able to be more spontaneous and can complement their teacher’s spontaneity.
Recipes for Success
In a brief conversation with Howard Levin, we discussed a variety of topics related to the success of the program and plans going forward. Levin states his goals for the program:
- Increase the number of ways that students can authenticate their work and create programs like Telling Their Stories. The students are doing real work that can benefit other people.
- Continue to focus on the best ways of using technology as it keeps growing and changing. For example, it is becoming easier to archive experiences ranging from classroom work to field trips to student presentations. How does a school use this technology to help education? What should be archived and how can it be used?
- Rethink the whole definition of how schools can best use the 24 hours in a day. Can the day be broken into a blended environment of in-class work and students working from home using their laptops?
Also discussed:
- The Role of the Student: The Urban School students have been involved since the beginning of the one-to-one program. They have served on various committees and have contributed both formally and informally. Recently the school, with leadership by students, has been identifying and compiling a package of anti-distraction software available to help students learn better by cutting down on sensory overload from oral, auditory, and other messaging.
- e-textbooks: The Urban School is considering a transition from printed books to eBooks and a migration path to a paperless classroom. Although Levin believes the iPad has taken things a long way he thinks that eventually there will be an iPad-like device with more of the functionality that the students need.
- Scalability: Laptop initiatives do cost more money than traditional programs but that is not the deciding factor for their success or lack of success, according to Levin. He cites an example, in California’s central valley, of a community of migrant farmers who have created a successful laptop program with limited resources. The most important factors are the understanding of education, the involvement and support of the school community, and the dedication to using 21st century tools.
- Social networking: Social responsibility is a social issue not a technology issue, says Levin. Students are responsible for their electronic postings and the school staff works hard to help the students understand their responsibility. The faculty and staff see the Urban School — where students are given a great deal of freedom with supervision — as a good transition to the unsupervised college environment.
- Collaboration with other educators: The Urban School’s high-powered faculty is committed to exploring ways of making teaching more exciting by participating in the Center for Innovative Teaching (CIT), including the annual summer Integrated Technology Symposium. They work with school leaders and faculty from around the country as part of CIT.
Overall, Levin’s recipe for success stresses that his school’s laptop program is not about teaching technology; it’s about creating a holistic environment for learning and teaching that can be aided by the tool of technology. He recommends an end to technology-specific faculty training, student technology skills classes and technology-specific fund-raising. Instead, says Levin, the goal is to build a supportive and flexible learning community that constantly seeks out new opportunities to enhance and augment the curriculum. |
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