Classroom, Student Computers Growing In Northwest Arkansas

Students in West Fork, Springdale and Bentonville are the latest to join an expansion in classroom technology as the school year begins Monday.

West Fork High School students were being issued new Chromebooks in the days leading up to the start of school.

Bentonville School District recently added 24 classrooms to an expanding list of classrooms equipped with laptops for each child.

Springdale will start the school year with 5,000 Chromebooks spread throughout schools with the goal to buy 20,000 laptops during the next two years to provide a laptop for each student in the district. The district plans to spend a large portion of a $25 million federal grant to buy computers for students and for training teachers and updating the infrastructure, said Clay Hendrix, associate superintendent for curriculum, instruction, innovation and technology.

More Northwest Arkansas schools are moving toward "one-to-one computing," meaning a laptop computer for every student.

Lincoln School District four years ago bought Apple Macintosh equipment for each student in kindergarten through 12th grade. Elkins issued Lenova laptop computers to its high school students last year.

Lester Long, curriculum coordinator for the West Fork School District, said the computers open the world to students, which is why the program is called one-to-world, rather than one-to-one. The district bought 425 Chromebooks for students and teachers. The computers, coupled with infrastructure improvements, cost about $180,000, he said.

"We have to think about how learning occurs in a 21st century classroom," Long said.

The computer carts used in the high school were moved to the middle school, Long said. The middle school now has a computer cart for every grade, so four teachers are sharing one cart with 28 to 30 Netbook computers. Previously, teachers from multiple grades shared computers. The middle school serves grades five through eight.

"This helped everyone," Long said.

Students will be allowed to take their computers home to do homework. Most students said they were pleased to have the computer.

"It's for the better," said Andy Brownmiller, a 17-year-old senior. "There will be less of a paper trail."

Donovan Reeves, 17 and a senior, said he liked the addition of the laptop computers.

"All the students get more access to the Internet. We have the opportunity to use the Internet when we want," Reeves said.

"I guess it's great," said 17-year-old senior Hannah Watts, "although I have a better computer at home." She said she has a Satellite Click, a model made by Toshiba.

"I like the initiative of having the Internet," Watts said.

West Fork teachers spent time last week acquainting themselves with the computers and discussing projects for students.

"Teachers will learn along with the kids," said Shad Surber, the facilitator for the school's Environmental and Spatial Technology program.

Elkins and Lincoln superintendents had high praise for the transition to issue computers to students.

Mary Ann Spears, Lincoln superintendent, said the one-to-one program is going very well for students and teachers.

"Teachers like the research capability," Spears said. "The computers provide more personalized learning. Students can work at their own pace to take a digital course that they are now required to take before graduation."

Spears said the district experienced problems with students taking care of their computers and now limits computers going home with students to sophomores and up.

In Elkins, where high school students were issued laptop computers, Superintendent Dan Jordan said, "The risk was worth the opportunity," noting the benefits to students while giving teachers more flexibility in their classrooms.

The district has had some issues, such as replacing cracked screens on three laptop computers when students tried to close them with pencils left inside.

Bentonville

Bentonville began adding technology to classrooms about three years ago with money from a federal grant, the district and the district foundation. Teachers apply for grants to add computers to their classrooms, iPads for kindergarten through second grade and laptop computers for grades three through 12, said Paul Stolt, communications director for the district.

Teachers are required to have one week of professional development, with an emphasis on project based learning, before the computers are issued to the classroom. The district also allows students to bring their own device for Internet access, Stolt said.

The grants are awarded based on the strength of the teacher applications, he said.

Stolt said 24 classrooms recently were approved for a cart and laptops, bringing the total to 67 classrooms so equipped.

No To One-To-One

Some schools and districts have had laptop computer programs that haven't been so successful.

Greenland entered the technology world when it purchased Macintosh laptops for its elementary school students. The program never got off the ground because there was no support, either infrastructure or teacher professional development. That was a decade ago.

Haas Hall Academy purchased laptop computers for its students when it first opened but quit the program because of maintenance issues, said Martin Schoppmeyer Jr., the school's founder and superintendent.

"It was an issue of scholars not taking care of them and the cost," Schoppmeyer said. "It wasn't a good idea for us. Technology is just a tool, an expensive tool."

Haas Hall has a bank of 90 computers for student use and the school is up to speed for administering the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career exam given to measure student performance under Common Core State Standards, Schoppmeyer said.

Fayetteville is taking steps toward one-to-one but Susan Norton, chief information officer, said the district has more work to be done, especially with infrastructure and teacher professional development.

This year's goal is two students per computer, said Norton, who heads a committee of teachers and administrator working on stepping up classroom computer usage.

"We see incrementally so many steps we need to take," Norton said. She predicted by the 2015-16 school year the district will be in a better position to consider a one-to-one program.

A decade ago, a one to one program was implemented in individual classrooms at the former Jefferson Elementary School and at Asbell Elementary School but Norton said the program failed.

"Everything changed. The equipment aged. There were pockets of success but we didn't have the professional development or no long range plan," she said. "There were lots of complications."