Independent Thinking » 1:1

1:1 Site Visit – The Nueva School

barblcohen — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 07:04:54 +0000

Today my colleagues and I spent the day at The Nueva School in Hillsborough, CA. We were hosted by Matt Levinson, the Head of Middle School, and were there with the intention of hearing about their brand-new 1:1 laptop program in grades 6-8.The Nueva School is a 40-year old K-8 school located in Hillsborough, CA with an emphasis on gifted students. They currently have an enrollment of 370 and will be expanding to 400 within the next several years. This past Fall they rolled out 1:1 laptop computing for 6-8th grade on the very first day of school. There was inevitable fallout and it served as a wonderful cautionary tale about what not to do! While they got off to a rocky start, they are already putting in place some changes for next year’s rollout to 6th Grade.We had a great opportunity to spend close to an hour talking to 8th Grade students about how they felt 1:1 is going at Nueva. Students are amazingly enthusiastic about the new laptop program. They claimed that they use their laptops 2-3 classes per day, and that most of the use of laptops is not during class. Home use is both academic and social. Students expressed pleasure with the large amount of compelling software on their laptops, (ranging from the full Adobe CS Suite, to Office to iLife & iWork, Geometer Sketchpad, Flash, 3D modeling software, Mind Mapper, etc.) which they frequently explore and use in a way that would not be possible without 1:1. A few students recounted how difficult sharing sharing a family computer was prior to 1:1. “It was a living nightmare.” “I don’t have to wrestle with my brother for the computer.” They loved having the same software and platform at school and at home, which contrasts sharply with the frustrations they had transferring work electronically prior to 1:1. They appreciate how everything is backed up every 15 minutes to the server, and the Open Directory system alleviates worries about machines crashing or forgotten at home. Teachers and administrators worried at first about the distraction factor, but found that once the initial novelty wore off, the amount of distraction was limited in 8th grade. Kids articulated that laptops are more environmentally friendly, create equity between all students, help them to organize their work all into one location and communicate with their teachers.As we continue to explore the possible road to 1:1 for our own 6-8th graders, our Technology Committee has set up a wiki to keep ourselves organized. To see the wiki, go to http://mcdstechcommittee07.wikispaces.com/

Tablets and Cell Phones and Palms — Oh My!

barblcohen — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 02:05:23 +0000

Oh…the modern conundrum…which gadget to use, and for what? Since September my purse is now filled with a cell, an iPod mini a Palm Zire, a 1GB USB thumb drive and occasionally a Sony digital camera. My school laptop is a Gateway tablet. So which gadget should house my calendar and list of contacts? I have my Palm synched with my Outlook calendar and contacts, but my phone needs the same list and I could put everything on my iPod. I have the ability to take photos with my camera (heavy but high quality,) my Palm, (fast, low-quality, requiring a sync) or my phone (low quality and harder to dump to my computer.) I can lug my laptop around when I need important files, but wouldn’t it be easier to stick everything on my thumb drive, my iPod or my Palm? Then there’s my library of music and podcasts. The mini is my first choice, but the laptop fits more. How are others making device choices?

MacWorld and Urban HS 1:1 Seminar

barblcohen — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 04:07:56 +0000

Last week was filled with professional development opportunities for my MCDS colleagues and me. On Wednesday, 3 members of our Technology Department attended an amazing all-day seminar on 1:1 student laptop programs hosted by The Urban School in SF. Howard Levin, Urban’s fantastic Director of Technology, hosted 80 visitors from a huge array of independent K-8 and High Schools. He cleverly required that all attendees bring a Head of School or other senior administrator with them in order to attend the event. We were thrilled to have our Head of School there with us as we all heard from Urban’s Head of School, Saul Rockman, a panel of laptop-using students, Urban faculty members and a panel of Tech Directors from other area 1:1 schools. The day also included visits to different Urban classrooms to observe what a high school laptop program looks like in action.

Thursday and Friday, we attended MacWorld. Our Tech Director, Library/Media Specialist and I wandered the trade show floor and saw various ways to dress up an iPod, ranging from rubber to quilted to Burberry to gold lame (pictured below.) I settled on an adorable $18 kimono for my own iPod mini.

The highlight of the day (for me) was hearing about the new iMac with Intel chip and built-in iSight camera, and watching a demo of the FANTASTIC new iLife 6. The product presentations left me practically drooling.

Friday brought us to the daylong K-12 Seminar, co-hosted by CUE and Macworld. The day consisted of some wonderful speakers and presentations, including David Warlick (keynote, podcasting and blogging), Hall Davidson (digital storytelling), Carol Ann McGuire (accessibility), and Rae Niles (1:1 student laptop programs.) My head is brimming with new ideas for implementation and experimentation back at school. Woo hoo!