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Initiative links laptops with schoolchildren

If a pilot program at Forest Lakes Elementary is successful, students across the county could get access to portable computers to use in their lessons.

By DONNA WINCHESTER
Published October 10, 2005

In the old days, Janet Acerra would tell her students to open their textbooks.

Now, she instructs her fifth-graders at Forest Lakes Elementary in Oldsmar to "power on."

The children flip open their laptop computers, execute a few commands and within seconds they are reading social studies lessons on the screens in front of them.

The students have spent about 80 percent of their time online since the laptops arrived in their classroom last month. They read books, do math problems and play educational games on the wireless computers, which they take home at the end of the day.

It's all part of a program the school district is piloting at Forest Lakes and Perkins Elementary in St. Petersburg, to put wireless technology in the hands of students. The ultimate goal, officials say, is for every child in the county to have a laptop computer.

The one-to-one initiative came directly from superintendent Clayton Wilcox, said Judy Ambler, the district's instructional technology supervisor.

"He sees this as the kids' world," she said. "He sees it as his role to find resources so teachers can command their students' attention in a digital world."

Acerra, who is the district's Outstanding Educator of the Year, was chosen to test drive the initiative because Wilcox considers her a "top notch" teacher, Ambler said. Soon, Perkins students also will receive laptops so the district can gauge the effects of wireless technology in schools in north and south Pinellas.

Based on similar initiatives they have studied in other school districts, administrators expect to see an improvement in student attendance and a decline in behavior problems in wireless classrooms, Ambler said.

Acerra already has noticed a difference in her classroom since the laptops were delivered Sept. 19. The students seem more eager to start their day and are more likely to stay on task until it's time to go home, she said.

"I'm finding that a whole world of opportunities has opened up," she said. "I'm using resources that I knew existed, but I couldn't use them to their fullest capacity because I couldn't show them to the kids."

Like most Pinellas teachers, Acerra had a handful of computer stations for as many as 30 children to share. Now that the kids have their own laptops, they're taking more responsibility for their lessons, she said.

But the giant step into the 21st century did not come cheap. The district spent $54,000 of its capital budget to buy the 30 Dell laptops, according to purchasing director Mark Lindemann.

The computers are equipped with PowerPoint and Excel software as well as filters to monitor the children's access to the Internet. They also have tracking devices so the district can keep tabs on their whereabouts.

Before approaching Wilcox to request the laptops, Acerra visited schools in Manatee County, where the one-to-one initiative was adopted about four years ago. That district has more than 5,000 wireless computers in 16 schools, said Tina Barrios, the county's supervisor of educational technology.

"We had reached a point where what we were doing to enhance teaching and learning using computer labs had hit a plateau," Barrios said. "In order to really level the playing field for all students, we felt we needed to provide laptops so that every student had access to the same tools."

Barrios credits the laptop initiative in Manatee County for a decline in discipline referrals and an improvement in attendance and self-esteem. She is optimistic that the district eventually will see an improvement in standardized test scores.

"Our initial goal was to provide 21st century skills to these kids," she said. "We believe over time, we'll see an improvement in FCAT scores. But we also know the technology is not a magic bullet."

At Forest Lakes, a school where only 8 percent of third-graders scored at the lowest level on the FCAT, compared with 19 percent districtwide, Acerra is eager to see if the new technology will move average and above-average students even further along.

"We want our children at the higher end to achieve more, but we also have a lot of kids sitting in the middle," she said. "Maybe this will be the way to bring their ability to the forefront."

[Last modified October 10, 2005, 01:18:12]