Iowa schools signing onto laptops

Southwest Iowa schools are trying to close the digital divide, capture student attention and prepare kids for an increasingly technological world by giving them nonstop access to their own laptops.

Today, Bedford residents will weigh in on the issue when they vote on what is called the “revenue purpose statement” for the school district. Approving the statement will allow Bedford schools to use the district's share of a statewide 1-cent sales tax on notebook computers, in addition to other projects.

A yes vote will help pave the way for the district to lease one computer for each of Bedford's sixth- through 12th-graders, although the district plans to move forward with the laptops regardless of the outcome, said Superintendent Joe Drake. If the plan is not approved, the district would either put the issue back on the ballot later or pay for the laptops using other district funds, he said.

The plan will cost the district $110,000 annually for three years.

“It's going to help kids who maybe don't have a laptop at home,” said Bedford school board president Mike Irvin. “It's going to put them on the same level as the kids that do.”

The district already has planned open houses in August to introduce students to the program, as have the Sidney and Avoca-Hancock-Shelby-Tennant (A-H-S-T) school districts, all of which are launching laptop programs in the 2009-2010 school year.

“It's been about three or four years in the making,” said Sidney Superintendent Gregg Cruickshank.

Sidney began expanding its wireless capability and improving the district's technology years ago. But it was a visit to Omaha Westside that convinced Cruickshank and other Sidney school officials that providing a laptop to each student was worth it.

“Students there (at Westside) were excited about learning,” Cruickshank said. “It's good for students. It's good for learning. It's their world.”

Westside is among several schools in Nebraska and Iowa that already have adopted the one-to-one laptop program, which assigns students a laptop that is theirs 24 hours a day, seven days a week as long as they attend school.

While high school students generally can take the computers home at night, most schools require that middle school students keep them at school.

When A-H-S-T launches its program — called 21.24, or 21st century skills, 24 hours a day — district technology coordinator director Matt Schmitz wants to focus on giving students real-life skills in a fun, engaging way.

“Pretty much any job anymore has a computer that you use,” said Schmitz. “We want to make sure kids are prepared to enter the work force or a two- or four-year school or trade school.”

The laptops have become a strong incentive for students at Cumberland-Anita-Massena High School in Anita, Iowa. The district has provided the computers for more than a year to its high school students, and the effects have been wide-ranging, said Principal Dominic Giegerich.

Students have written scripts, filmed movies and recorded podcasts based on classwork. In one instance, Giegerich used an online chat program to check in with students on projects while he was home sick.

Gauging which teachers are creatively using the computers in class is easy, said Giegerich. Those are the classes with climbing enrollments.

Students in O'Neill, Neb., have become “creative producers of content instead of just passive receivers of information,” said Katie Morrow of the O'Neill district.

“Students don't have to stop when the bell rings,” said Morrow. “They can work on things constantly and really take it a lot farther than they could in the past.”

Students have been so prolific in creating videos, Web sites and digital animation that district officials are interested in obtaining their own cable access channel next year for the student projects.

Those activities have become necessary in a world that runs on technology, said Irvin, the Bedford school board president.

“Textbooks are fine,” said Irvin. “But we live in an electronic society.”