November 2007 — News
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WiFi Bolsters Alabama District's 1:1 Tablet PC Program
The project started by testing the Trapeze system for three months prior to rollout, in order to identify potential problems and fine tune access point location. So, in early 2006, ACS installed six access points at the junior high school and tested them with the teachers' tablets to ensure stable connectivity, Sandefur said.
For the initial rollout in March 2006, the district purchased 380 tablets for ninth graders, who began using the network. Now that those ninth graders have entered the 10th grade (in October 2007), they took those tablets with them, and the district bought an additional 450 units for the new crop of incoming ninth graders.
"We considered expanding [the network] down to the sixth grade, but that's much further in the future," Rice said. "The target is to continue to grow the network year by year, but we will evaluate the data to make sure we should continue moving it grade level by grade level."
To finance the project, Rice said the district is working on a 10-year budget that covers infrastructure, tablet units, software, and professional development for staff, as well as equipment repairs and replacement. ACS allocated $1 million a year in order to expand the program by one grade level per year. While line items could change over time, Rice said careful preplanning should help the district avoid major shifts.
"You can't keep up with technology for the sake of keeping up with technology," Rice said. "You have to have a plan in place and stick to it."
Feedback
Of course, the network is new, and the qualitative and quantitative tracking of results is still formative. That said, all indications are that ACS is on a very positive track, according to Rice.
"We have one year's of information under our belt, so we need to go through the second year to yield any sort of trends," she said. "However, teachers say attendance has picked up and is more steady and that they have seen increased student engagement--which eventually leads to grades.
"We have also seen improvements in discipline getting better," she continued. "I'm not sure if we can attribute attribute that to the wireless network, but it does put positive behavior support in place. We see students working together to self regulate."
Professional Development
A key part of the program's initial success was ensuring that educators, as well as students, could make the most of their wireless environment.
"Our focus from the outset has been progressional development," Rice said. To begin that process, teachers completed online surveys as part of a gap analysis that benchmarked their professional development needs.
Integrating technology into the curriculum became a key focus, and the school set aside weekly 60-minute "Tech Tuesday" sessions to help teachers focus on using classroom applications and ensure the solutions would address their needs and concerns.
