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Ubiquitous EdTech in the News
The movement towards ubiquitous portable computing in education has reached the cascade point in America. The 2003-4 academic year marks the rapid growth of 1:1 laptop/tablet computing in K-12 schools accompanying a similar movement which has spread throughout universities and colleges over the past 5 years. News on this page is organized according to the RTEC regions/consortia established by the DOE (FDU is a consortium member of the MidAtlantic region).
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
PC Magazine | 8.19.03 "Today, the most important school supply, aside from textbooks and perhaps a coffeemaker, is a PC. Whether you're in college, high school, or even middle school, you're at a disadvantage if you don't have a PC....On-campus wireless networks have doubled every year for the past three years, and that number is expected to grow steadily. More than 90 percent of all public universities run some sort of wireless LAN...If you're in high school or even middle school, your own notebook or desktop isn't quite the must-have it is for college students. You often share one system with your family (which is not ideal when there are several school-age siblings), but this, too, is changing."
Angelfire Poll | 9.3.03 "In a recent survey of more than 2,500 U.S. teens,Terra Lycos found that nearly two thirds of teens ages 16 to 19 consider cell phones and laptops the most important electronic essentials as they head back to school this year."
Quebec, CA | 9.23.03 "The Eastern Township School of Quebec, Canada is taking delivery of its first iBooks for elementary and secondary students, as part of a 3-year program that provides 5,000 iBooks to students. First announced in January 2003, the program will give all Eastern Townships students, from the 3rd grade of elementary school to the 5th level of high school, will receive their own portable computer to use during the school year."
NORTHEAST & ISLANDS REGION
MA (Newton) 9.2.03 "No bell rang, but the announcement of laptops awaiting sent the crowd of 50 new teachers who were otherwise busy munching on wraps, chips and cake, stampeding out in unison to Newton South classrooms like a herd of ninth-graders on their first day of school."
NH (Concord) 9.3.03 "Seventh-graders in up to five schools will get laptop computers next year as part of a new pilot program to improve learning, Gov. Craig Benson said Tuesday. Benson said 19 school districts are being invited to submit proposals and up to five of them will be chosen to get laptops and wireless connections for their seventh-graders and their teachers."
MIDATLANTIC REGION
NJ (Union City) 8.29.03 "Two weeks before the opening of Union City's Veterans Memorial Elementary School on Central Avenue found masons jabbing bricks into a herringbone sidewalk pattern, another crew massaging a cream-colored stucco onto the facade, and a couple of electricians stuffing wires behind drop ceilings.... There are phone jacks and electrical plugs for nine stationary computers in each classroom, and the school also will have 240 laptops available to its students."
NJ (Allentown) 9.4.03 "AHS Principal Christopher Nagy...All teachers will have laptops this year, which Nagy said will enhance classroom teaching and provide an interactive class-room experience."
NY (Queens) 9.4.03 "Starting college can be stressful but for freshmen at St. John's University things got a little sweeter last week when their orientation material included free laptops...The computers also went to St. John's freshmen at the Staten Island, Manhattan and Long Island campuses for a total of 3,100 laptops. It is the university's largest incoming freshmen class."
APPALACHIAN REGION
KY (Louisville) 9.2.03 "DeSales High School in southern Louisville is taking steps to become the first school in Jefferson County to equip students with their own laptops. The boys' Catholic school began its effort this year with a "mobile lab" of 30 wireless laptops. Next fall's incoming freshmen all will be issued similar laptops, and all students will have them by 2005 and be able to keep them for college."
SOUTHEAST REGION
FL (Hudson) 8.19.03 "Hundredsof parishioners, benefactors, politicians, priests, parents and students gathered Monday evening to dedicate the first new high school to join the Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg in 41years....Gov. Jeb Bush, a Catholic who has made school choice initiatives a cornerstone of his educational policy, gave the keynote address in theschool's 1,010-capacity gymnasium....Bush praised the vision of the school's founders in designing the 154,424-square-foot building with wireless Internet access and equipping all of the school's teachers and students with laptops."
FL (Orlando) 8.22.03 "Dr. Kate Clark, Ocoee Middle School principal, announced Friday that some of her students will now be assigned their own personal Tablet PCs for school and home use....Like many Orange County public middle schools, Ocoee Middle's seventh-grade population is divided into teams. One of these three teams was chosen to participate in the program. The 150 students on that team were chosen randomly, Clark said, and will now spend the school year carrying a single Tablet PC, instead of textbooks and notebooks. At first glance, the Tablet PC resembles a laptop computer, until the user detaches the screen. Instead of typing on the keyboard, students can remove the screen and write directly on it with a special pen. A wireless connection allows students to write, save, send and receive information on the tablet screen while moving freely throughout the classroom. Since each student's handwriting may be different, the Tablet PC has handwriting recognition software that enables it to convert written words into text."
NC (Snow Hill) 9.25.03 "They've no doubt heard about the project for months, but soon Greene County students will get to take their laptop computers home. The county's iTech program, which will allow every student in middle and high school to have access to an Apple iBook computer, is ahead of schedule. Superintendent Steve Mazingo originally expected students to take computers home after Christmas, but most students should have their laptops by November. The first group of computers will go out Oct. 14, when the parent training sessions begin. Students will start training Oct. 15. Students already are using the computers in class. The first deployment of 416 computers has been sent to the schools."
NC (Snow Hill) 10.4.03 "A $3.2 million pilot program in Greene County is placing a laptop computer in the hands of every student in grades 6-12....Through a four-year lease agreement between Apple Computers and Greene County schools, about 1,800 students and 170 teachers will receive the computers. Piloted in Henrico County, Va., the program in Greene County is the first countywide iTech program in North Carolina, officials said."
NORTHCENTRAL REGION
IA (Cedar Falls) 9.4.03 "The first-day jitters were common among the 12 freshman and three sophomores starting classes at Valley Lutheran High School Wednesday morning....Stabenow and other students started warming up to their new school a couple of hours into the day when teachers issued them wireless laptop computers. The computers will be used in class for note taking, research and developing a portfolio. Students will lease the laptops, with the option to purchase upon graduation."
MI (Detroit) 8.14.03 "In January, Michigan's 132,000 sixth-graders will have access to wireless equipment through a new technology push called Freedom to Learn, announced last month by Gov. Jennifer Granholm and state legislators. Freedom to Learn's ultimate goal is to provide a wireless device to every child in Michigan. The current initiative will cost $39 million in both state and federal funding for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1."
MN (Stillwater) 9.23.03 "The Stillwater Board of Education approved a plan to give every junior high student in the district a laptop to use at home and school, despite requests from dozens of angry parents to delay the decision.... The laptops would go to about 2,270 students and 135 staff members at Oak-Land and Stillwater junior high schools by next fall. Many of the 75 parents who packed the three-hour meeting expressed concern when district officials only had a funding plan for the first two years."
OH (Beechwood) 8.14.03 "'No more pencils, no more books' could become more than a summertime anthem in Beachwood Middle School..."We are paving the way for how education is going to change over the next few years and in the future," said Edward Bernetich, principal of the new school. The 240 students and 40 teachers each will get an Apple iBook laptop computer for class- related use at home and school....Last month the district leased the iMacs for four years. Each computer costs about $1,000. The district spent $300,000 of its $700,000 technology budget to start the program."
HIGHPLAINS REGION
SD (Watertown) 8.12.03 "Watertown High School students are getting laptop computers, part of the district's Learning Without Limits initiative."
SOUTHCENTRAL REGION
AR (Wynne) 8.11.03 "Wynne High School recently spent more than $800,000 on laptop computers for its 800 students. This fall, the students will have to share the 475 Gateway laptops at school, said Beth Boeckmann, Wynne High School assistant superintendent. But if students and teachers become proficient working with the computers, the school will buy more so all students will have their own after the first of the year, she said."
LA (New Orleans) 9.7.03 "Democratic front-runner Lt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco wants to put laptop computers in the hands of seventh-graders statewide."
TX (San Antonio) 8.15.03 "Freshman entering St. Mary's University will each be issued their own Dell notebook computer to use during their four years of college....As long as they remain a full-time student, St. Mary's University students are issued a computer every two years."
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