One-to-One Learning: Our Story from Cullman City Schools in Alabama
September 2008, Volume 1, Issue 3
One-to-One Learning: Our Story from Cullman City Schools in Alabama
by Jan Harris, Superintendent of Cullman City Schools, Cullman, Ala.
Results are encouraging
Two years ago, we began our One-to-One Initiative. During this time, attendance improved at Cullman Middle School from 95percent to 98 percent. Discipline infractions decreased from 43 percent to 17 percent in overall behavior while classroom discipline infractions decreased from 16 percent to 14 percent. The number of students who made A Honor Roll improved from 16 percent to 18 percent. Writing scores improved as evidenced by our seventh-graders’ scores on the Alabama Direct Assessment of Writing. Overall, their scores improved by 13 percent, increasing from 76 percent to 89 percent. Writing mechanics improved by 12 percent, moving from 66 percent to 78 percent while grammar and usage improved by 3 percent, moving from 67 percent to 70 percent. Also, overall SAT-10 scores improved; seventh-graders’ scores improved from 67 percent to 70 percent while eighth-graders’ scores improved from 62 percent to 69 percent. How did this happen? Let me share our story with you.
In the beginning
I became extremely interested in One-to-One Initiatives through conversations I had with Mark Edwards, former superintendent of Henrico County Schools, as I began my first year as superintendent of Cullman City Schools in January of 2005. After studying this possibility, I communicated my interest to our progressive Board of Education and found them to be supportive and enthusiastic. Therefore, we moved forward.
NSBA’s T+L Conference provided a holistic view of the technical world in which we live
First, I took a team to the NSBA’s 2005 T+L Conference because I wanted our leaders to have a global vision for technology and 21st Century skills. They received this holistic view and embraced it while in Denver at this eye-opening conference. At the conference, we learned about how other schools were meeting the needs of their students in this global world in which we now live. Our team came back to Cullman energized, educated, and ready to improve our students’ learning environment.
Exploratory Committee formed
In October of 2005, we formed an exploratory committee to determine the possibility of starting a One-to-One Initiative in Cullman City Schools. We involved stakeholders in determining the feasibility of this lofty goal and based on positive results, launched our initiative in order students into the 21st century. We wanted to equalize student access to technology and close the digital divide. We wanted to bring our students into an educational environment that mirrored the world in which we live. At that time, national statistics revealed the average computer in America’s schools was shared by five students. We did not want this abysmal statistic to be true for our students. We committed to changing this statistic in grades seven to 12 by issuing each student a laptop computer. It was exciting! It was frightening! We felt like Lewis and Clark exploring new territory.
We had the right people on the bus
As Jim Collins notes in his book, Good to Great, we knew we had “the right people on the bus.” Our team was in place to improve teaching and learning through the use of laptop computers. Our technology coordinator, Alan Pass, had the technical skills to bring our dream to life. He determined which hardware suited our needs and worked with our Chief School Finance Officer, Russell Raney, to secure a lease for the laptops.
Our middle school principal, Jayne Barnett, had the curriculum knowledge to help our teachers make the shift from traditional instruction to project-based learning. Our teachers welcomed this exciting 21stcentury opportunity and enthusiastically supported it. Our school board heartily supported our monumental plan and we had community buy-in. I conveyed the importance of our plan to faculty and staff and shared our story whenever and wherever I could.
Professional Development – number one priority
Training was our number one priority. We learned from presenters at the T+L Conference that training or lack of training will determine the success or failure of any effort. We chose Intel’s Teach to the Future project-based learning (PBL) curriculum for professional development for our teachers. We selected Desire to Learn (D2L) as our course management system. We committed to training our teachers during the school day for a minimum of six days. During this time, teachers learned about D2L as well as PBL. Our board suggested that we hire a full-time laptop coach to support our teachers. We selected one of our master teachers, Aimee Smith, for this important role. Aimee continues to be invaluable to our program’s overall success.
Changes
We added laptop carts to our elementary schools, and all of our schools became wireless facilities. Students began conducting their school business such as voting for student elections through the use of their laptops. They created a collaborative book project using a wiki at our middle school. We created and produced efficient communications with our parents and trained them regarding D2L. We developed a structured process for roll-out of laptops, daily maintenance, and collection. One of our most valuable assets is our a S.W.A.T. team (Students Willing to Assist with Technology); these students are valuable assets. We learned about S.W.A.T. teams at the T+L Conference.
Funding
Because of the support of our community and our legislative delegation, we were successful in securing several grants for our initiative. For example, Congressman Robert Aderholt approved a $200,000 Appalachian Regional Commission grant (ARC) for SMART technology. Governor Bob Riley, Alabama State Superintendent Joe Morton, Lt. Governor Jim Folsom, State Senator Zeb Little, and State Representatives James Fields and Jeremy Oden sent us more than $130,000 for technology through grant and bond money. Wachovia Foundation provided $15,000 in grants for technology. Our local Lions Club raised $7000 for our initiative during its first year. This funding was beneficial in sustaining our efforts. We estimate that our One-to-One costs approximately $300 per student each year.
We seek input and strive for continual improvement
We seek input from parents and students and constantly seek to improve our initiative. For example, students told us the laptop was heavy. So, we changed to a lightweight, smaller version this year. Half of the students and parents reported they liked having textbooks on the laptop while the others did not like this option. So, this year we distributed textbooks and sent them home with our students. Additionally, we have a classroom copy for use..
In one survey, our middle school students agreed:
- Student projects are better prepared. (77 percent)
- Lessons are more fun with laptops. (73 percent)
- Group projects are easier to do. (73 percent)
- Students can learn more. (72 percent)
- I am getting better opportunities than students who don’t have laptops. (70 percent)
- Students and teachers communicate more. (65 percent)
- Parents/guardians are more involved in school and schoolwork. (63 percent))
Warts
Is our One-to-One Initiative a perfect plan? Absolutely not. We do not claim to have all the answers. We work to prevent and correct problems on a day to day basis. I will share a few of the problems or “warts” we have experienced. We continue to struggle with insufficient bandwidth. Four out of approximately 750 students were not mature enough to handle the responsibility of a laptop computer. We have experienced hardware issues that have been resolved with the help of our capable technology team. We were concerned about filtering issues the first year and resolved this issue by installing filtering software on each student’s laptop. Now, no matter where students access the Internet, their options are filtered.
Conclusion
We continue to look for innovative ways to provide a 21st century education for our deserving students. Laptops are not the key to learning. Effective teaching is the key to learning. Computers will never replace master teachers. Master teachers will embrace technology and weave it into the daily fabric of learning. Master teachers will continue to look for ways to develop students’ intrinsic desire to learn. Technology can be seen in our students’ daily life through their usage of cell phones, MP3 players, televisions, computers and more. We must engage our students if we want to inspire them to achieve at a higher level. What better way to engage students than through technological avenues?
Next steps
Our plan is a conservative one. We are adding one grade at a time for laptop distribution at the high school. To date, students in grades seven through 10 have been issued laptops. We hope to immerse the entire high school with laptops for all students by the end of the school year. We now have a laptop cart for each grade of students at each elementary school. We are in the process of providing project-based learning training for our elementary teachers and the last tier of high school teachers. There is much to do and little time to waste. Our students deserve a world-class education and it is up to us, as educators, to deliver it. As we learned in 2005 in Denver at the T+L Conference: The Future is Now!
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