Year 8 Laptop Programme

The main reasons for implementing a laptop programme at Island School are as follows …

• We believe that being able to connect to the internet and use computers when learning
is an entitlement for our students and not an option;

• Students rarely solve any problems outside school without the support of computer
technology and/or the internet. All the adults they know work in a world that just
wouldn’t function without the use of the same technology. So it follows that our
students need access to the same ‘tools’ at every stage of their learning;

• It is our responsibility to make school as engaging, relevant and meaningful as
possible and one of the key ways of doing this is to integrate the use of technology into the school environment in this way;

• This project is not about the computers themselves; it is about ensuring a world class
education for our students;

• Through access to the different kinds of resources that the internet and software can
provide; and the opportunity to use many online tools to support language learning,
laptops are key to improving achievement;

• Laptop computers will help us to plan lessons that better meet the varied needs and
different learning styles of our students. Simply put it will improve the quality of the
education every student receives;

• Research tells us that laptop schemes help students who are accessing the curriculum
in their second language. These students can access web pages in their ‘mother
tongue’ when work gets very challenging and data suggests that the quality of reading
and writing improves in schools where students have their own laptops;

• When students have constant access to computers they spend less time on ‘low order’
thinking skills and can use software capability to avoid the more mundane tasks and
get straight on to the areas of analysis, synthesis, evaluation and creativity.

• Communications technologies have the potential to change schools and classrooms
from isolated places with scarce access to information to environments with rich
connections to the world and all its ideas.

To view a student made video introduction to the school’s laptop programme click…here

View Island School’s initial position paper…here

“The evidence indicates that implementation of Maine’s one-to-one ubiquitous laptop program has had a positive impact on middle school students’ writing. Five years after the initial implementation of the laptop program, students’ writing scores on Maine’s statewide test had significantly improved.”

Maine’s Middle School Laptop Program: Creating Better Writers

See full research…here

“Research shows that students with routine access to laptop computers score higher in writing assessments, demonstrate better analytical skills, collaborate more and have lower absenteeism and dropout rates. In Maine, for example, 33,000 seventh and eighth graders enrolled in a 1 to 1 program improved their scores in language arts, math, and science. Having used notebook computers all four years of high school, twelfth grade students scored higher than 85 percent of their peers in all five core subjects of the last Maine Educational Assessment.”
 
Apple Classrooms Of Tomorrow ACOT website…here

“This program has allowed me to tear down the classroom walls and open the eyes of my students. Besides having the world at their fingertips, they are also much more organized and communicative with me.”
Dean Mantz , Director of Technology, Lyons Unified School District 405, Lyons, Kansas, USA.

“Communications technologies have the potential to change schools and classrooms from isolated places with scarce access to information environments with rich connections to the world and all its ideas.”

Digital tools designed to “augment human intelligence-from digital calculators, word processors, databases and spreadsheets to very complex modeling, statistical, and graphical software-automate lower level intellectual skill, allow their users to concentrate on higher level thinking.

Collaborative tools enable teams of students to participate in creating, editing, and revising documents collectively, thus enhancing the possibilities for group wisdom. As they create and collaborate, students find their voices as they are recognized collectively and individually.”

‘The Educators Manifesto’  Robbie McClintock, Institute of Learning Technologies, Columbia University

This is an obvious question for parents to ask. Unfortunately the answer is, "It depends". Island School has decided to not advocate any one particular model of computer and instead to give parents the choice. Whilst we realise that some parents would like firm requirements, we feel that equally, others have already purchased laptops for their children and would not want to go to further expense. Accordingly we have generated a Critical Factors Affecting Choice Guide...here which would be a good place to start.

We do not require students to buy the most expensive Mac Book Pro!

As well as this we do have a broad technical specification to guide your choice of machine and operating system. We ask that you keep to this so that your son/daughter can look forward to using our wifi and participating in lessons without any connection or compatibility issues. The specification can be viewed on the school website…here

Induction Program: Students in Year 8 will be expected to bring a laptop everyday from the beginning of term in January.  In their first week back they will spend a whole day in their form sets with an ICT teacher going through an induction program.

The purpose of the induction program is:

• To get students’ laptops set up to connect to the school network and the Internet at school.
• To get students’ laptops set up to print at school.
• To get students to establish a folder structure for managing their school work and to discuss back up options for important files.
• To establish and encourage good charging and laptop management habits.
• To establish appropriate use in class and outside of class.
• To check that students have appropriate virus protection and give them access to resources they can use to protect their computers.
• To set up on-line bookmarking accounts so students can curate websites they find useful to their studies and to provide an array of sites to start that process off.
• To install some tools to help with screen capture.

ICT is a constantly changing field and with the arrival of laptops in the school it is imperative that the activities that students engage with in the formal ICT curriculum matches their needs and the changing environment.  With this in mind the following are some of the courses currently taken by students in lower school to support their digital literacy development:

Year 7

Website Reliability: Students go through a number of exercises to develop critical approaches to web based information. They look at the concept of truth and develop techniques to help assess the reliability of websites.

Understanding Copyright: Students work through a series of tasks on Copyright understanding key principles and vocabulary. The final assessment tests the students ability to apply their knowledge to a range of realistic scenarios.

Search Skills: Students work their way around the world on a virtual tour using their research skills to solve problems and get the location of the next clue.

Looking After Yourself On-line: A group project that requires students to choose an Internet Safety topic, research facts, statistics and case studies connected with that issue an then present what they have found out as an animated conversation between a TV host and an Internet Safety Expert.

Digital Communication: A look at how communication technologies have evolved and the effects they have on society.

Computer Security and Personal Safety: A mandatory self study course in the Year 9 Digital Media course where students look in theoretical and practical ways at the security of personal data, privacy and reputation management.

Building My Learning Network: A mandatory course in the Year 9 Digital Media course where students are taken through the idea of an on-line persona, blogging and the blogoshpere as well as practical tips on social bookmarking, RSS feeds and i-google.

It is essential that students use their lockers effectively once they start to bring a laptop to school. On no account should they leave their bags with laptops in unattended. There are some communal lockers available for students outside the changing rooms and so we strongly recommend that students have a spare lock so that they can secure their laptops during PE or Drama if they prefer not to use their personal locker.

It is also essential that students understand that they should not touch bags and computers belonging to others.

The school has an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) that aims to guide the use of all ICT and digital technologies within the school. It details the ways in which ICT facilities can and cannot be used and is relevant to students, staff and parents. As a way of ensuring that all parents and students have read and understood this document, please read the ‘essential agreement’ and the AUP itself by clicking the link below. You have already been asked to sign to say that you understand the expectations outlined there. Once your son/daughter has a laptop for use in school the AUP has increased importance.

To view the school’s Acceptable Use Policy please click … here

E-safety is intrinsically linked to the idea of digital citizenship in the 21st Century. All of us, students, teachers and parents are obliged to try and keep ourselves in touch with what it means to be digitally literate, and undertake risk management when it comes to our behaviour using digital technologies.

Island School is in the process of reviewing their digital citizenship practices and developing an action plan to bring about improvements in line with this process. Included are obliged to try and keep ourselves in touch with what it means to be digitally literate, and undertake risk management when it comes to our behaviour using digital technologies.  We understand that this can be challenging and having a sense of where to start and what rules to establish are questions we are often asked by parents.  As a school we take the safety of our students very seriously and have put into place several elements to our developing e-safety strategy. 

Firstly, in the formal ICT curriculum there are several courses aimed at developing students’ appropriate use  of digital technologies (see ICT Courses to support Laptop Use section in this newsletter). Many of our teachers have undertaken voluntary professional development on Internet Addiction with staff from St. John’s Counselling and we have also,  invited Robin Treyvaud, a well respected professional in this area to present on the topic of e-safety  to parents and students.   
ESF schools are now participating in the Generation Safe 360 program...here which is an accreditation system designed to encourage systematic improvement in e-safety.  Island School is in the process of reviewing their digital citizenship practices and developing an action plan to bring about improvements, especially since the online world is continually expanding.

Below are recommended useful resources regarding e-safety and other digital media related issues.

THINKUKNOW parent information...here

“Cyber safe kids”...here

“Common Sense Media” site...here

Robin Treyvaud...here

The responsibilities of the ‘Learning Technologies co-ordinator’ at Island School have increased this year to support the sharing of good practices across the departments both in and out the classroom, as well as map the use of technology across the School to maximize the use of student laptops. Paula Lepore Burrough is fulfilling this responsibility, along with her roles as an IT educator at Island school and Secondee with ESF to help build our schools’ virtual learning environment (ISLE) into a purposeful tool to support student learning. These initiatives will continue to keep our school moving in line with meaningful 21st century educational practices.

Ms. Burrough is currently supporting the Languages and Science department in setting up Class Google Sites effectively, she is team teaching with History teachers to support the process of creating a documentary video, creating an interactive music workbook for students, and supporting lead technology teachers from each department to build virtual courses on ISLE.

One of the ways we support the laptop programme in school is to ask each tutor group in years 8,9, 10 and 11 to nominate two Student ICT reps. The role of these students is to support the whole tutor group on being able to find relevant information on the website and to be able to answer questions that come up in the wider group concerning the use of laptops in class.

These students  …

• … receive some training from the ICT team about typical connectivity problems;
• … are briefed on strategies for offering advice and support, but are clearly told not to touch or to try and ‘fix’ other students’ machines;
• … are expected to keep up to date with the "ICT Support News" and the “Tech-know” blogs on the website and ISLE;
• … attend occasional meetings lead by the ICT team to learn more ways of supporting their peers.