Our visit to Cedar Rapids Prairie’s 1:1 Macbook Air deployment

Entry way of Prairie Point, which houses 7th, 8th, and 9th grade.

As part of our district’s 1:1 study, we recently sent a team to visit the 1:1 roll out at College Community School District, Iowa  (commonly known as Cedar Rapids Prairie).  The following is not the final notes/findings from our entire group, but instead just a summary of my personal notes.

Tell us your story.. how did you become 1:1?

Discussion started three years ago and they’ve been working with the board of education, administrators, and staff since that time.   They conducted school visits like many other districts and formed a K-12 committee to study the issue. 

When did you deploy?  What device and to what grade levels?

Students at grade 9-12 received a Macbook Air starting this past fall (August 2012).

Why did you go 1:1?

We are interested in….  Project Based Learning and Digital Literacy.  

Everyone says that we are preparing students for their future. If that’s true – technology has to be a part of preparing them for their future, right?   Technology helps drive us towards changing our classrooms from allowing students to be passive consumers to active creators. 

What person or group was the driving force?

The conversation and driving force started with the Curriculum Director and Director of Technology.   As part of their conversation, it was discussed that “If we don’t lead this, who will?”  Also, as they discussed their goal of moving towards problem based learning, the discussions with teachers resulted in teachers commenting  “If our students had access to mobile device, we could easily move towards project based learning.”

What hidden issues/aspects did you find?

1.  Logistics of deploying large numbers of computers can be overwhelming. We spent a lot of time planning, but we learned that you can’t plan for everything.

2. Have a way to monitor students.  We heard from some individuals that you’ll need to spend more time on ethical usage and bullying.  They eventually purchased DyKnow for monitoring.  (Note: The high school felt that a monitoring tool was critical. However, discussions with other schools showed that the need was not district-wide).  As to whether monitoring software is really needed may depend on your need, but there is no doubt that you must plan for discussions on appropriate usage with students.

If you could do it again, what would you do differently?

1. Temper your initial expectations.  Make your initial expectations realistic and keep providing support to move forward.  

2. Use a more phased approach.  There’s no doubt that some folks were still stressed by the initial deployment.  However, we also found it interesting that we collected some feedback that it was important to get all the devices out right away to all students – as they felt that its a selling point that builds support with your parents/community.

 

How are you monitoring your progress? Since digital literacy is a significant part of the overall goals, they have devised common digital literacy assessments that are used with all 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th graders.  This is the first year of this implementation, so results were not yet available. 

In addition, staff are asked to complete a teacher practice profile, basically a self assessment to help indicate their progress.

Other general notes………….

Digital Literacy Advisory is a district wide committee that oversees training, roll outs, and monitors progress of the initiative.  The group was much larger at the outset, but its still 10 to 15 people currently and they meet about 4 times a year.  Topics that they discuss include: policy review, reviewing student assessment data, discussing professional development.

Digital Literacy Trainers…   Two existing staff members from each building that have been given additional training and expectations to help with the professional development related to digital literacy.  Their role is to go beyond tools training, to extend into integration and transformative change.

Give teachers professional development in the same method you would want them to use it in the classroom

Currently spending approximately $1100 per student for the device/software.  

Would like to have devices for 5th grade thru 12th grade.

Selected the Apple Macbook Air based on light weight, mobile, fast, great battery life.  Also interested in establishing a common set of tools for students, which includes.. iLife Suite, Microsoft Office, and Google Apps.

There is no standardized Learning Managements System or LMS (such as Moodle, Schoology, Edmodo, etc)   They felt that mandating an LMS is restricting to staff and students.  Instead, the requirement is to have your information on-line and available within the district’s staff directory.  Each teacher can decide what websites/tool is best for their online resources. 

Although the project was (and still is) Kindergarten thru 12th grade focused… and, even though some resources have been redistributed to K-8, there is definitely a strong concern that there are not enough resources at the lower grades and that more resources are needed at K-8.

Written by Brian Abeling, @wdmtech

My notes from visiting 1:1 iPad deployment at Waverly-Shell Rock

As part of our district’s 1:1 study, we recently sent a team to visit the 1:1 roll out at Waverly-Shell Rock schools.  The following is not the final notes/findings from our entire group, but instead just a summary of my personal notes.

Also visit:  My conversation with middle school students using 1:1 iPads at Waverly-Shell Rock

What’s your story?  Why and how did you become 1:1?

Their middle school was devastated by flooding back in 2008.  With the help from FEMA, state, and local resources, the school reopened in the fall of 2011 as a 5th grade thru 8th grade middle school featuring a 1:1 ipad rollout to all 600 students.  The middle school was originally designed to have desktop computers in each of the classrooms, plus traditional computer labs, and mobile laptop labs.  However, during the construction, they discussed that they were already close to one device per child – so they changed the model to provide a device per student.

During the fall of 2011, they deployed an iPad to all students grade 5th thru 8th.  One year later, they deploy an iPad to all student 9th thru 12th grade.

Why did you go 1:1? 

To provide our kids with equal access to the tools and resources needed for learning.  We needed to put all student on a level playing field and give them all equal footing.

What results do see or expect?

Increase in student engagement in our classrooms.

Caused a change in classroom management and the tasks that are given to our students.

Students are writing more than they did prior to 1:1.  In addition, teachers commented that students in general are creating more, instead of just memorizing.

Also noted that students now have more choice about how they demonstrate their knowledge.

Another nice result >>  Open enrollment was up 90 students this year.

Are the middle school and high school iPads set up the same or different?

They are set up differently…  At the middle school, the iPads are locked down.  Students are not able to download or update any apps.

At the high school, the district provides a base set of apps on the iPad  but then students uses their personal iTunes account.  This provides them with the ability to download their own free apps, as well as to perform app updates that are needed. High School really likes the ability for students to download the right app for the right task.

Other general notes………

The first four years of equipment was purchased within the bond for the middle school.

At the lower grade levels, 4th grade classes have 8 iPads per room.  Next year, K-3 will have 5 iPads per classroom. 

Also considering deploying an iPad for each student with an IEP, as they are seeing that iPads are a tremendous tool for leveling the playing field for special needs students.

We try to keep assignments to the iPad, giving them tasks that do not require home Internet access.

Currently using Canvas as the Learning Management System.  However, Canvas is currently an option and is not required of all staff.

How many positions were added or altered due to the 1:1 deployment?  1 existing job role was partially shifted to help, and 2 FTEs were added.   In addition, teacher librarians have shifted over time, more towards being a technology resource.

All K-12 associates in the district have an iPad and receive training.   They received comp time instead of being paid for the training.

Facebook is blocked at the middle school level (5th thru 8th), but is open at the high school (9th thr 12)

Help Desk at the high school is staffed with a district technician, as well as students.   Students help with basic troubleshooting, and apps/updating. At this time, students are not involved in physical repairs of the iPads, this is handled by the district technician

Apple TVs are installed in all classrooms

Middle school received all new furniture when the building opened last year – and they have noticed that the flexible, soft furniture helps in aiding with collaborative projects.

How are student videos collected/submitted?  A solution used at the high school…  create a classroom youtube account… give out the password to students, so they can use the account to post their final videos to youtube.  Then change the password between projects.

One of the most commonly used apps is Notability, which is basically a digital folder/filing system the contains all your documents and allows students to annotate on their documents.

What challenges/issues has you encountered?

The occasional student with inappropriate pictures…. which is addressed during random spot checks of student iPads.

Student filling the space on the iPad with their own pictures/music.

The app store locks up when it’s accessed by a large number of users from a single ip address (which happens at the start of school), but they are looking at room by room deployment/setup next year, instead of a building wide setup, all on the same day.

Early into the project, they had issues with printing, but they claim that this probably helped reduce printing costs and helped individuals seeks out digital solutions.

Workflow issues – A few staff we talked with weren’t discouraged by the workflow issues –  but they commented that they were dealing with a lot of emails from hundreds of students. Managing the emails and all the attachments was at times, overwhelming.   Of course, those that use Canvas had no concerns about workflow issues at all.  At this time, usage of Canvas is still optional and is not required.

Staff commented that they really liked how the district provided them with access to the iPads months before the students received them. 

Staff also commented that the Kindle app has been very popular in English classes.

Staff appreciated the differentiated PD sessions that were available to staff, so they could pick the course/sessions that best met their needs

Written by Brian Abeling, @wdmtech