November 2005 — Software/Courseware

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The Power of Digital Integration

by Mark Erb

The Power of Digital Integration
A small-town district prepares its high school students for the future by implementing a 1-to-1 laptop program with digital communications tools.

IN JUNE 2004, Brenda Winkler, the tech-savvy superintendent of the Kutztown Area School District (PA), had a plan. She wanted to institute a 1-to-1 laptop initiative with Apple Computer (http://www.apple.com) to put laptops in the hands of every high school student and teacher in the small university town located in rural Berks County, one hour northwest of Philadelphia. So, Winkler took to rallying support from parents and the community, and by the fall of 2004, the teachers and 630 students at the district’s lone high school were sporting Apple iBook computers equipped with a wide range of multimedia and productivity software to enhance teaching and learning.

It’s now one school year later, and the initiative has taken off. Students are now deciding precisely how they want to complete reports and projects. They open up their iBook laptops and choose to write a traditional paper or create a multimedia report—an iMovie, a Flash movie, a PowerPoint presentation, or a Web page designed with Macromedia (http://www.macromedia.com) Dreamweaver, Flash, and Fireworks. They browse the Internet and employ a variety of applications. What’s more, their teachers across all academic areas are using digital communications tools to produce engaging curriculum and content as a means of connecting with students and parents.

Schoolwide Access
Engineering the digital integration, the Kutztown district technology staff installed software to support student learning, including Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com) Office 2004, Macromedia Studio, Apple’s iLife Suite, and content resources such as Logger Pro, Geometer’s Sketchpad, Mathematica, Eazy-Draw, Omnigraffle Pro, and a host of other programs. Kutztown purchased the Macromedia Studio K-12 Site License which, for one flat fee, gave the district use of the software throughout the school. The license also includes K-12 curriculum, teacher training, and teacher home-use rights. Not surprisingly, the positive contribution of these resources is now experienced campuswide.

The classroom. In the school’s Web design class, for one, students are learning to use Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Freehand, and Flash. Although students are learning to use industry-standard software while building career skills, the ultimate goal of the class is to provide them with a way to develop critical-thinking and collaborative skills. The students work in groups, choosing the communications media while learning to troubleshoot and work together, persevering through the process of creating and completing a technology-integrated project.