SCHUYLKILL HAVEN - New initiatives are aiming to provide students with "21st century skills" by putting a laptop in the hands of every high school student.
During a presentation at Penn State Schuylkill on Wednesday, Jeffrey A. Stone, an instructor of Information Sciences and Technology, spoke about his research that has been focusing on two local school districts implementing one-to-one, also stylized as 1:1, programs.
The lecture, titled "Building 21st Century Skills? Implementing One-to-One Programs in Public High Schools" was presented as part of the Faculty Research Seminar Series.
Stone said that the programs aim to give students the skills and aptitudes necessary to succeed both in higher education and an increasingly global workplace.
Some of the 21st century skills include problem solving, critical thinking, cultural awareness, public speaking, creativity, inquiry-based learning and computing.
"Building curriculum and building assessments of these skills is like a mine field, not a lot of schools have perfected it yet," Stone said. "What a lot of these large school districts have been looking at, is what can we do to build these skills. Over time they've come up with one thing, an idea of a 1:1 program."
He said 1:1 programs were pioneered in Australia about 25 years ago and have since grown.
While the idea started with one laptop for every child that they can use in the classroom and at home, the idea of one laptop is changing into one computing device, since tablets and smartphones are becoming more prevalent.
"It's definitely a trend," Stone said. "Laptops, I think in five years, you won't see."
Stone didn't name the two school districts, which he said are within 20 miles distance, stating he is hoping to get his research published and also so all questions are directed at him, but he gave them fictional names, Mayberry School District and Hooterville School District.
At Mayberry, the program began in 2010 in grades eight through 12, there are about 500 high school students, it had the full support of the school board and they use Apple computers.
Hooterville piloted the program for grades nine through 12 from 2010 to 2012 with Classrooms for the Future laptops, mobile carts with laptops that can be taken from classroom to classroom, has 800 high school students, had moderate support from the school board and uses computers running Microsoft Windows.
The program was rolled out in full during the beginning of the 2012-13 school year.
While both school districts aimed to build 21st century skills, reduce paper use and give technology access to all students, Stone noted the laptops have gotten gradual use.
A survey of teachers suggested that teachers use the laptops in one to two classes a day, while a survey of students suggested they used them in three to four classes a day.
The primary use of the laptops at both schools is for web searches, word processing, note-taking and email, not using the technology to its full potential, which could include using other programs or applications and for more collaborative and inquiry-based learning, where learners are presented a scenario or problem and assisted by a facilitator and they will then identify and research issues and questions to develop their knowledge or solutions.
Stone said that as with all new technology, integration is slow.
Both schools have also had their share of problems.
There have been challenges with getting older teachers and students to adopt the technology and there are long-term cost concerns at Mayberry.
Hooterville had problems with IT infrastructure, such as Internet connection problems, a lack of manpower with only three people for IT support, a lack of power outlets in some classrooms, some hardware problems with Lenovo laptops such as overheating and freezing and a lack of planning by the school board.
Both are planning to continue the programs and at Mayberry, the program is being reviewed due to cost, hoping to find a better way to do it such as allowing students to bring their own devices to school, while Hooterville is going to continue with the program that was recently implemented and is looking into alternate devices as well.
Stone said that these cases are not failures and these are common things associated with implementing a 1:1 program, which is a long-term process and there is no perfect way to do it.
"These programs are popping up more and more," he said. "States are getting behind them more and more. Things are going to change over time. What will it look like in 10 years? I don't know. My guess is it will be more mobile devices, especially in the elementary level. One big thing that they have found is improved writing skills, especially in the elementary level when you give people at that level the ability to write papers with technology."
According to Stone, the implications of these programs for higher education is that students will be coming to the institutions expecting familiar instructional methods with accessible, useful and mobile technology.