The Wireless Revolution

Seventh grader Kurt Johnston is ecstatic that wireless laptops like these are standard issue for all Latrobe Junior High students.

With a laptop for every student and teacher, Pennsylvania's Latrobe Junior High is virtually mobilized for success.

The day the 1,000 laptops were deployed, students and staff at Latrobe Junior High knew they were on the front lines of the wireless revolution. And why not? After all, three-quarters of U.S. households will subscribe to a wireless service by the end of this year. And statistics show that more than 75 percent of teachers use computers every day, with the majority now using the Internet for instructional purposes.

Still, when Esther Howard first heard the revolution was coming, the veteran English teacher admits she felt more dread than excitement. "These laptops will be just like pencils--they'll lose them," she recalls thinking, "or like books--they'll damage them."

"And here we were," says Howard, "giving them an instrument so they could outsmart us."

"But then I said, 'Isn't it neat?'"

Command Central
Distribution began in 1999, when the school began issuing each student a "kid-proof" laptop computer that had a magnesium shell and no mouse, hard drive, or floppy drives. These seven-pound StudyPro student laptops don't need to be hooked up to any wires or plugs. They're powered by infrared cells installed in school ceilings, and their links to the Internet travel through these same infrared rays (see Got Wireless?).

The wireless machines run standard Microsoft software, which is downloaded from the Internet, and student work is automatically backed up to the school's central server.

Howard's own laptop is command central. She can turn students' machines on or off, block Internet access, and disable spellcheckers. And when she decides to compare how students in a Montana classroom are studying Call of the Wild, she filters incoming E-mails through her laptop and dispatches select messages to her students.

Howard's students power up to revise their drafts of an essay. They log on, make edits, print out, and team up with classmates to proofread and get feedback. Howard circulates from student to student, screen to screen, to monitor progress.

"We really get a lot accomplished during the 40 strong minutes of class time, because the computer allows you to work quickly," says Howard. "I can see what they've written, note their edits, and make a comment right there."

Meanwhile, in Tom Karazsia's ninth grade technology education class, students keystroke notes, design their dream car, and write a detailed newspaper ad to sell it. They check the class Web site daily to get assignments, complete vocabulary reviews, and take tests, which are automatically scored with grades that post instantly.

Should something go wrong, users can march down the hall to the Command Center, where each period a computer tech specialist works with an assigned teacher on duty who learns to troubleshoot, dismantle, and repair the computers. While students use their laptops at home for word processing, they can't access the Internet without the infrared cells. And school protocol requires students to recharge the battery overnight.

Boot Camp
Technical wizardry aside, the real power behind the wireless revolution at Latrobe Junior High rises from sustained teacher training and an operating system that puts teachers in control.

Rollout and training for Latrobe's 70 teachers began in December 1998, with staggered distribution to its 1,050 students completed by last fall.

Teachers are paid to attend two to three days of training at the beginning and end of each school year. There are optional summer seminars. And substitutes hold down the fort so staff can attend quarterly, on-site trainings by content area.

Howard adds that she's learned the most during monthly voluntary Collegiality Groups, during which veteran educators trade off teaching techniques for the latest tips from their tech-savvy younger colleagues.

"This school has taught me everything I know about computers," says Howard. "The younger teachers are so enthusiastic to share what they know."

Students attend their own boot camp on the care and feeding of their machines.

The Buzz on Learning
Laptops have created a substantial change in the way instruction occurs in the classroom, says Principal John Kozusko. There's more one-on-one interaction, more collaboration, and more inquiry-based, independent study.

Teachers in laptop environments report more frequent uses of student-led inquiry and collaborative work--and they indicate that it's the computers that make the difference.

And the community is picking up on the change. Dozens of new students are enrolling in the school, as parents from area private and parochial schools, students from other districts, and corporate executives from the nearby Sony plant opt to enlist their kids.

Glitches
Not all educators embraced the wireless revolution. A turnover of 16 teachers, attracted by a generous retirement package, resulted in the school hiring new teachers more adept with the technology. And Howard's concern, shared with other staff, that students would find a way to abuse the technology were realized when a student hacker tried to circumvent safeguards in order to load taboo music sites.

The counterattack was to create an "Internet Ethics Code" and "Computer Use Policy." Each year, students must write an essay demonstrating their understanding and acceptance of the documents. Abusive students are denied laptops and complete work in the school library's computer center.

Only one violation has since occurred. And the reformed hacker, assigned to the Command Center during probation, is now one of the school's greatest allies.

The specter of hordes of high-energy kids destroying their laptops or simply losing them--another staff fear--hasn't materialized. So far, only one laptop has been lost. And no other has suffered permanent damage.

Wired or Not?
With technology having so much to offer, schools are struggling with how much to spend on it, whose products to use, and how to manage it all.

Latrobe's laptop project is part of a three-year, $2 million partnership with Georgia-based NetSchools Corporation (www.netschools.com). When the school board realized that installing six computers in each classroom and computer labs for each grade would cost nearly as much-$1.7 million-the laptop scenario received unanimous support.

In addition to supplying the laptops, the contract provided a laser printer for each classroom, installation of the infrared system, Web content correlated to textbooks and state standards, and on-site training and technical support.

Howard can't wait for next year's overhaul of Latrobe Senior High, where she teaches half of the day.

"I love teaching, and I love books," says Howard. "Sure, I could teach without computers, but I wouldn't want to. We're giving this to our students so they can be well-prepared for the real world."

--Michelle Y. Green

For more: E-mail technology coordinator Gene Cameron at gcameron@wiu.k12.pa.us or visit http://wiu.k12.pa.us/latrobe/Latrobe%20Laptop%20Project/.

Got Wireless?

Wireless technology uses light or radio waves instead of copper wire or cable to make things work. The same infrared rays that sound your car alarm now beam messages to palm organizers. The microwaves that pop your kernels are used for telephone relays. And when you "reach out and touch" by cell phone, you're using the same radio frequency bandwidths that make cable-free modems and computer local area networks the wireless wonders they are.

Virtually unheard of even two years ago, enhancements to cell phones, pagers, palm organizers, and pen-sized portables seem relentless. What are the wireless features today's kids crave?

• MP3 players with ear buds to record, download, convert, and listen to a personal mix of music

• On-demand E-mail and silent, short messaging by keypad or mini-keyboard

• Instant Internet access for gaming and teen-interest sites

• Device "interconnectivity": cell phones that talk to their computers, play music, send messages, and go online

Wireless Good, Wireless Bad

Indispensable tools or needless distractions? Increasingly, schools are being forced to choose sides in the wireless revolution by considering appropriate-and inappropriate-uses such as these:

• Handheld devices with built-in scanners monitor hallways and track attendance of a New York school's 2,400 students.

• Personal digital assistants, or PDAs, have been banned from many classrooms because students can use them to beam test answers to each other.

• English students in Maryland use PDAs to retrieve assignments, research and write reports, access online dictionaries and encyclopedias, E-mail teachers, and retrieve their grades.

• A Chicago student, who used his cell phone to send homework reminders to his home computer, also sent silent, harassing messages to classmates.

• Old cell phones are being refurbished and distributed to school bus drivers to make emergency calls.

• A California freshman was suspended after directing a laser pointer through several panes of glass and into the eyes of a teacher in another building.

• Phys-Ed classes in Illinois monitor nutrition and fitness and track physical exercise levels and daily caloric intake using electronic palm devices.

• Illinois students disrupted class using Communicators, $20 pen-sized devices that can record and send messages through walls up to 100 feet away.

• A Columbine High School student made a dramatic call for help using a cell phone. Many schools now permit their use before and after school.

• A wireless parking system alerts staff to student parking infractions, and security guards can monitor non-authorized visitors and errant students.

Q & A
The New Digital Divide

Technology is changing the way students are taught. But in today's high-tech classrooms, who's teaching the teachers? David T. Gordon, editor of The Digital Classroom: How Technology Is Changing the Way We Teach and Learn (Harvard Education Letter), says an all-out effort is needed to train teachers on how to use and teach with technology. Otherwise, all the hardware in the world won't improve education.

What's being spent on school technology today?
Federal, state, and local authorities spent an estimated $7 billion in 1999 on school computers, Internet access, software, and related items.

How much has been spent on teacher training?
Schools last year spent less than 5 percent of their educational technology budget on training, and teachers got, on average, four hours of training. That's appalling even if technology were static. But think of all the changes that take place in a year.

There are schools with wonderful technology that nobody knows how to use.

Research indicates that teachers in poor, rural, and urban districts get far less training, so that has an exponential effect in perpetuating a digital divide.

The myth is that putting computers into schools will directly improve learning. But in fact, teachers haven't received adequate training on how to integrate technology into daily classroom instruction. And technical support is often unavailable or insufficient.

Computer basics aren't enough?
You wouldn't put a book on a table, look at it and say, "Gee, it isn't doing anything." The potential of that book is only realized when a caring, competent, well-trained teacher can say, "Let's learn how to read." Technology isn't a magic bullet, it's a tool.

What needs to be done to bring teachers up to speed?
It's pointless to talk about the larger-scale digital divide unless you talk about closing the digital divide that surrounds teacher training. In the next five years, there's got to be a concerted effort, as there was in creating the E-rate program, to help teachers get the training and support they need day to day.

Teachers need access to regular workshops, online workshops, discussions groups about technology.

What resources are available?
There are many terrific groups, such as the 21st Century Teachers Network, a volunteer, teacher leader-based effort (www.21CT.org); the Apple Learning Interchange (http://ali.apple.com) and Wide World, Harvard's online learning center (http://Wideworld.pz.harvard.edu).

For more: E-mail David T. Gordon at editor@edletter.org. To order The Digital Classroom: How Technology Is Changing the Way We Teach and Learn ($21.95), visit www.edletter.org or call 800/513-0763.

Resources

• NEA and educators across the country have teamed up to create "Useful Web Sites for Educators 2000," a link to some of the best education technology materials on the Web. Etools and Etools 2000 are two new NEA publications that showcase creative ways to deliver lessons using technology. Visit www.nea.org/technology/resource.htm

• The Education Technology Literature Review newsletter summarizes major education technology articles from the nation's leading education and technology journals, magazines, Web sites, and newspapers. Visit www.eschoolnews.org/stob/index.html or call 800/394-0115, x199.

• Connecting the Bits: A Reference for Using Technology in Teaching and Learning in K-12 Classrooms offers best practices for using computers in the classroom. The 170-page reference is free online from the NEA Foundation for the Improvement of Education. Visit www.nfie.org/publications/connecting.htm.

• Intel's Education Destination is a free, non-commercial site that offers teachers and school technologists news and help in teaching with computers, technology planning and management, and professional development. Visit www.intel.com/education/destination.

• Partnering with the American Museum of Natural History, the Library of Congress, and NASA, Classroom Connect, Inc. helps K-12 teachers apply technology in classrooms through curriculum and graduate courses online. Visit www.classroom.com.

• AHA! Interactive provides Collaborative Learning Units, projects in which students in grades 6-12 use the Internet to research and resolve such issues as global warming. Visit www.ahainteractive.com.

• The Web-based Education Commission has released "The Power of the Internet for Learning: Moving from Promise to Practice," a report on the challenges of providing access to broadband communications to schools. Visit www.webcommission.org.

• The 2001 School Technology Funding Directory, 2nd Edition provides comprehensive listings of more than 500 grant and funding resources and grant-seeking strategies. Visit www.eschoolnews.org/stfd.

• A new Department of Education report, "Measuring Impacts and Shaping the Future," answers important questions about technology's impact on K-12 education. Visit www.ed.gov/Technology/techconf/2000/report.html.