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Laptops for all at junior high 'Better than books,' says eighth-grader in Greater Latrobe Sunday, September 24, 2000 By Eleanor Chute, Post-Gazette Education Writer
The note outside the classroom of Greater Latrobe Junior High School teacher Rose Mellors lists what she expects pupils to bring to class: textbook, pencils, English folder and laptop computer.
A laptop is standard equipment throughout the school for the more than 1,050 seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders.
That's because the district provides them for all pupils and teachers at the junior high.
"It's like a world apart. It's changed the way teachers teach, ... the way they think about kids," said Principal John Kozusko.
Initial reports from test scores and writing samples show the laptops are making a difference, said Assistant Superintendent Stephen Sarokon.
Sarokon said it was hard to establish a direct cause and effect because the district is working in a number of ways to improve its schools, but he thought the technology had something to do with it.
One of the biggest changes was in the district's own writing tests. In 1997 and 1998, an average of 70 percent of ninth-graders could meet the district's exit standard for writing. But in 1999, 81 percent of the ninth-graders met it.
"I would like to think that maybe we got them more actively involved, more actively engaged in instruction. I know the first time that we got them, the lunchroom was quiet because all of the kids were eating lunch and had that laptop open and were working on it," Sarokon said.
The school began with providing laptops to seventh-graders in the second half of the 1998-99 school year. By the time $9.9 million in school renovations were completed in December 1999, pupils in all three grades, and their teachers, had them..
The technology cost $1.9 million, or about $300 more per student more than a plan that would have provided three computer labs and six desktop computers in each classroom.
Teachers and administrators have conventional laptops, but pupils use StudyPros, wireless computers. StudyPros were developed by NetSchools, a start-up company founded in 1996 and headquartered in Atlanta. Nationally, 41 schools and 14,000 students use StudyPros. Greater Latrobe is the only one in Pennsylvania and the second largest NetSchools customer.
Nationwide, Microsoft counts more than 125,000 students and teachers at 800 schools as using laptops, including NetSchools. Microsoft teamed with laptop manufacturers in 1996 to create Anytime Anywhere Learning.
Earlier this year, a California-based research company released the third study of some of the laptop schools in the Anytime Anywhere program, comparing laptop and "nonlaptop" groups.
It concluded that computer access for students with and without laptops has increased, but that students who had school laptops used computers more frequently and "consistently show deeper and more flexible uses of technology" than the groups without laptops.
The average laptop teacher used the Internet once a week; those without laptops used the Internet once a month, on average. Laptop teachers also showed "significant" movement toward using student-led inquiry and collaborative work.
The report says comparisons of standardized test scores were "inconclusive," although it said laptop students did better on the writing assessment given by the researchers.
The NetSchools laptop used in Greater Latrobe is tougher than conventional laptops. The seven-pound, silver-and-navy StudyPro has a water-resistant keyboard and a magnesium case to minimize damage from dropping. Instead of hard or floppy drives, it has a solid-state construction.
It runs Microsoft Windows 95, Works for Windows, a Web browser and a math-graphing program. It can store up to 500 Web pages, so even pupils without Internet access at home can continue their research.
While desktop computers in schools are networked using wiring in each classroom, the StudyPros rely on infrared beams similar to those on a TV remote control. The beams are emitted from "caps" -- 8.5-inch glass squares -- strategically installed in the ceilings of classrooms and most of the cafeteria.
The beams connect the laptops to a hub. From there, a fiber backbone leads to the school's server in a closet by the library.
The server stores student work and enables connections to the Internet. Pupils are expected, at the start and end of each day, to make sure their work is stored securely on the server.
The system was designed so that about 1,100 can use it at the same time.
In addition to the infrared system, the district installed hard-wired hookups for the teacher's laptop and a black-and-white printer that handles 30 pages a minute in each classroom. Teachers also can choose to have some pupils' work printed on two laser, color printers in the building.
The teacher can control the StudyPros within a classroom, including shutting off calculators, e-mail and spelling checkers during an exam.
The batteries in each StudyPro last for five or six hours. Pupils are provided with power cords so they can use the machines for homework and Internet access at home, if they have it. Pupils are expected to shut down and recharge the machines for eight hours each night at home.
Lots of logistics are necessary to make a program like this work. They include teaching ethical computer behavior, and identifying and tracking each machine. It took six days to distribute the computers -- one at a time.
"This is not the easiest thing to do," Principal Kozusko said. "The easiest thing to do is to put a couple of labs in."
Every seventh-grader gets 12 weeks of training during the school year. Teachers receive ongoing training. The district pays for a NetSchools trainer -- Ed Markiewicz, a retired Greater Latrobe High School teacher -- to work with teachers about two days a week.
Just as some teachers have study hall duty, some spend a period a day fixing laptops. One teacher is in the repair area each period, and a NetSchools technician makes repairs two days a week. The school has about 30 backup laptops for pupils.
Parents have to sign contracts, making them responsible for any malicious damage to the machines.
The $1,300 laptop won't work if it doesn't make contact with the infrared for 21 days. If one is lost or stolen, the district pays its $250 insurance deductible. If it happens a second time, the parent pays. Only one has been lost in 21/2 years.
Walking through the junior high school, it's easy to find classes using the laptops. In the seventh-grade life science classroom of teacher Debbie Jacobs-Sera, pupils had homework on their screens while they went over the answers.
In Tom Pratt's eighth-grade American culture class, pupils went on the Internet to find out biographical and platform information on the presidential candidates.
In teacher Mike Porembka's seventh-grade world cultures class, pupils were working in small groups on an Internet scavenger hunt, learning how to use search engines to find out information such as the current world population and President Teddy Roosevelt's alma mater.
"It's a teacher's dream," said Bill Girt, a seventh-grade world cultures teacher in his first year in Greater Latrobe and his fifth year of teaching.
Rather than having to schedule time in a lab, his pupils can use the laptop whenever it fits the lesson.
For a world geography lesson, he talked about the Olympics in Sydney, Australia, and then had pupils find news articles on the Internet from cities throughout the world.
Girt also e-mails his pupils directions such as test dates and homework assignments.
Eighth-grader Emily Falbo pronounced the laptops "better than books." She likes the freedom to find information on the Web and keeps her school work organized on the laptops. The sites pupils can access are filtered by the Internet service provider, which is the Westmoreland Intermediate Unit.
Seventh-grader Gina Dominick said she was learning a lot about research. She also uses her laptop to do homework while sitting on her bed. She saves the home computer in the hallway for chatting with friends.
Teachers aren't expected to have pupils using the laptops all the time or even every day.
"We don't want them to use it every day in every class. We want to see kids talking to each other, making presentations," Kozusko said.
Porembka said, "I use it when I feel like it's going to be most beneficial."
Now in his third year at Greater Latrobe, Porembka said the technology is one reason he took the job. "It helps me as a teacher. It helps me to get them from Point A to Point B."
The idea of using the laptops came up when the district was discussing junior high renovations and what technology should be used.
Latrobe already had updated technology in the elementary schools, using six desktop personal computers in each classroom and a computer lab in each building. That put the junior high next in line.
The district learned about NetSchools, and visited schools where StudyPros were in use. They also contacted the company's bankers and investors.
"There was still some risk," said Gene Cameron, district technology coordinator. "We saw this as such a powerful tool we thought it was worth the risk."
NetSchools developed special Web pages for the district by studying district textbooks and curriculum and correlating thousands of Internet sites with district and state standards.
"It's our curriculum. The technology isn't driving us. We are driving the technology," Cameron said.
Even with more than 1,000 laptops, the school still has more than 80 desktop personal computers. That includes 22 in the library, where pupils can go when their laptop is in for repairs and no replacement is available. The rest are for using specialized software in science labs and computer-aided design.
While school officials say it hasn't been easy to set up this program, Cameron said it was worth it. "We'd do it all over again because we think it's the best thing to do."
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