Mobile Computing

2 Vermont Middle Schools Go 1-to-1

• By Leila Meyer
• 10/19/15

Edmunds Middle School and Hunt Middle School in Burlington, VT, have implemented 1-to-1 initiatives to provide every student with mobile tablets and high speed data plans so they can access online learning resources at any time from anywhere.

Edmunds Middle School and Hunt Middle School are among 13 new schools to join the Verizon Innovative Learning Schools (VILS) program this year. The VILS program is directed by Digital Promise, a nonprofit organization that encourages innovation in education. As part of the VILS program, "all 405 students at Edmunds and all 383 students at Hunt will receive their own personal tablet equipped with a two-year Verizon Wireless 4G LTE data plan, enabling 24/7 Internet access for learning at school, at home, and wherever they want to take them," according to a news release from Verizon.

Teachers at both schools are receiving ongoing professional development intended to help them use the technology to practice more individualized and experiential learning techniques in the classroom. Both schools also plan to use the 1-to-1 program to support new science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) initiatives over the next two years, and they have dedicated learning coaches in place in place for those programs.

Len Phelan, principal of Hunt Middle School is enthusiastic about the 1-to-1 program. "These powerful tools for learning will do much to enhance our ability to provide authentic and beneficial learning experiences to all of our students in school and beyond the school day," he said in a prepared statement.

The VILS program is collecting best practices, teacher insights, stories and resources from all participating schools and will make them available online at no cost, so teachers can access the information and use it in their own classrooms.

Further information about VILS program resources can be found on Verizon's Digital Promise site.