Administration


Enhancing Teaching and Learning
1:1 Laptop Program for Del Mar Middle School Students
Implemented in 2005

 

Del Mar Laptop Program Information

  • The school district provides an Apple Mac Book for each student enrolled in middle school.
  • Students take home laptops nightly; they are not left at school.
  • Recharging of laptops is done at home.
  • Internet access at home is monitored by parent.
  • Laptops are turned in each summer to be refreshed.
  • Funding for the program comes from federal, state, and district general fund revenue.

 
  Why Create Millennial Classrooms?

  • Improve and enhance teaching and learning
  • Increase student achievement
  • Create an exciting, challenging, and engaging environment for learning
  • Provide all students with access to computers throughout the school day
  • Give teachers access to relevant and current curriculum and research
  • Give students the opportunity to extend learning outside the walls of the classroom
  • Build closer relationships between teachers, students, and parents through instant and ongoing communication
  • Decrease paperwork for teachers and students through use of electronic files
  • Create alternate methods of communication for students through i-chat, email etc.
  • Extend learning opportunities for students by creating conditions for students to have unlimited sources of information to support learning and to be able to use the information to delve deeper into projects
  • Provide authentic audience for students to share their work
  • Support different styles of learning for all learners:  special needs, second language, hearing disabled, gifted, and students who need assistance in subject matter
  • Enable the voice of all students to be heard
  • Be a leader in offering the best educational opportunities for all students 

 

Over 25 members of the Reed Union School District school community spent a year gathering information about implementing a 1:1 laptop program to support teaching and learning at Del Mar Middle School.  The Committee was made up of middle school teachers, parents, administrators, and Board Trustees.

To gather information and learn about districts that have initiated such programs, the Committee members made field trips to the following schools:
  • Urban School, San Francisco, December 2005
  • Pleasanton Unified School District, January 2005
  • Schaumberg School District & Marie Murphy Middle School, Avoca School District #37, Chicago, Illinois, February 2005
  • Beachwood Middle School, Cleveland,  Ohio, February 2005
  • Rincon Valley Charter School, Sonoma County, February 2005

 
Findings

  • Students care for their laptops
  • Recharging laptop is not an issue
  • Evidence of more collaboration than isolation
  • Students are actively engaged in learning 24/7
  • Students continue to read books, as well as use technology
  • Fostered closer relationship among teachers and students
  • Calmer atmosphere in school
  • Technology is not a substitute for the arts
  • Most schools have eliminated need for traditional computer lab
  • Students do not want to go back to doing “manual labor
  • Combination of federal, state and local funding for financial support


Who are the Millennials?

  • Children of the Boomers
  • Born between 1982 and 2000 they account for 27% of America’s population
  • Hyper-communicators who use many means –often simultaneously--land phones, cell phones, beepers, handhelds, the Internet, email, chat rooms, instant messaging, and fax machines


“Digital kids need learning to be relevant, meaningful, and applicable now.  That’s very different from students, even myself, who went to school 12 years ago.”-- Marco Antonio Torres, Teacher/Media Coach
San Fernando High School, CA



Research to Support Use of Laptops

  • Pilot study in Maine reported 73% of students raised grades in 3 or more subjects

2005 Pleasanton School District Research

  • The study provides evidence that participation in the laptop immersion program had a significant impact on student achievement.
  • Students were more engaged and motivated to write and produce longer documents with higher quality.
  • To increase achievement, findings suggest all students must have equal access to technology rich environments in which technology is no longer a shared commodity.

 

 “Kids have been working with paper, books, pencils, erasers and blackboards for hundreds of years.  And now, this is our new blackboard; this is the new way for kids to learn.”
-- Jan Hand, Science Teacher
Mansfield School District, Storrs, CT

 



The Millennial Classroom of Tomorrow
The primary use of laptops will be to enhance teaching and learning. Some examples are:

  • 24/7 use to research relevant learning topics
  • Communicate easily with teachers or administrators
  • Software applications to support curriculum
  • Teaching writing as a process with electronic submissions
  • Project-based learning
  • Assessment
  • Collaboration for students to discuss relevant learning topics with each other
  • Learning intervention for students with needs
  • Enrichment opportunities for all students
  • Professional classroom presentations
  • Instant communication outside the walls of the classroom with other students in the community, state, or world
  • On-line access with experts
  • Data analysis and presentations; e.g., graphs, spreadsheets, etc.
  • Access to current and relevant information

 

“…we are preparing students for their future, not our past.”

-- Dr. David Thornburg, Senior Fellow

Congressional Institute for the Future

Director, Global Operations for the Thornburg Center

 

Find out more about 1:1 Learning