Prep school is first to require students, teachers to carry laptops
The laptops remain the property of Peddie, an exclusive college prep school in Hightstown, N.J., that raised tuition to pay for the $2,000 machines.
Many other schools are experimenting with laptops but Peddie believes it's the first secondary school to build them into the tuition, and thus require that all students and all staff have them.
Example to others?
Few schools can match Peddie given its affluent student body and a huge gift from its most generous benefactor: Philanthropist and Peddie graduate Walter Annenberg a few years ago gave it $100 million to build a new library and other school infrastructure. Still, Peddie's laptop program could eventually provide lessons for other schools as they consider adding laptops to their classrooms.
 |
| Is this the educational wave of the future or something only wealthy schools can afford? Add your comments to the bottom of this page. |
 |
Peddie's laptops, carried in individual cases embossed with the school seal and each student's name, are fully networked for access to the Web, to e-mail and to software programs - whether a student is in a classroom or dormroom, since Peddie is also a boarding school.
Peddie also has its own on-site technician and repair facilities, where loaners are available if a laptop goes bad.
Gone are the school's two computer labs, as well as many of the blackboards and student desks that still define most other grade schools.
The labs are gone because the school expects teachers and students to use the laptops in class, and not in a lab learning specific computer programs instead of applying the technology to curriculum.
Classroom plans
Tim Corica, the schools director of academic technology, says some French, Statistics and Calculus teachers are looking into whether they might someday replace textbooks with laptops.
We expect some of this to occur over time as faculty grow accustomed to having the laptops," he says.
"There is a tremendous amount of (laptop) activity in various departments," he adds, "though it certainly is not every day in every class, and we don't want it to be."
On a more practical matter " how students can lug laptops along with books" Corica expects the students will be able to manage a laptop in hand, and books in a backpack.
Lessons from pilot project
Peddie has been experimenting with laptops since 1994 when it launched "The Principio Project," a sophomore/junior elective that combines extended field trips, student projects and interdisciplinary studies.
Corica believes Peddie learned several lessons from Principio: "First, it established the concept (that) kids can take care of, and make great use of, laptop computers." "Second, we learned that when kids have the tools everyday, they rise to the occasion and feel more professional in their work. This tends to lead them to take their work more seriously." "On a more mundane level, we also learned that obsolescence is a real issue, and that a three-year lifespan is about as much as we can hope for."
And Susan James, Peddie's communications director, adds that Principio has also furthered the idea of the "teachable" moment. "During a class, when a question is raised, teachers can go right to the computers and guide the kids to a Website or a software program on the spot without reserving the computer lab days or weeks in advance," she notes.
Technology veterans
Corica believes that Peddie's long track record with technology has prepared it for being on the cutting edge of laptops in the classroom.
Peddie was among "the very first to use campus wide networking (dorms, classrooms, offices) five years ago," Corica says, "and therefore has a longer history and more expertise among our faculty in the use of technology in the classroom" - expertise that includes an electronic grading system.
A key decision with the laptops was to give all teachers their laptops a full year before the students got theirs - the idea being to give teachers a head start when it comes to tools that kids tend to pick up more easily.
Peddie also encourages every student to make the Internet part of their daily school life. Each gets an e-mail account on entering Peddie, and those who don't immediately use it are given extra help and encouragement to stay connected.
As for how digital tools have been used so far, James notes the work of her son, who uses the Web to find primary sources for research reports. Other examples, she adds, include an after-school club that plans to pitch its fundraiser by using Powerpoint presentation software, and the school newspaper is published on networked laptops using Pagemaker software.
And Peddie's own Web site, which is maintained by a student Web-design firm, offers additional background on how the school has deployed technology over the years.
Downsides too
James, asked whether Peddie would be evaluating how laptops fare in the classroom, has little doubt that laptops are there to stay given how common they are outside of school. "We are a prep school," she emphasizes, "and prepping kids for the world of the next millennium is paramount here."
Corica acknowledges "downsides" but feels they can be managed by faculty. "There is a risk that kids may spend too much time superficially surfing and too little thinking analytically," he says. "There is a risk that faculty may get distracted by the tool and lose sight of the content that they wish to teach.
"In all cases, however, I feel that we have a professional faculty and we have discussed many of these issues. Faculty have been explicitly instructed to choose the best teaching methods for their courses " laptop or not laptop."
Corica and other colleagues, in excerpts from the forthcoming book "Oh What a Web We Weave," noted that the technology often leads to temptations.
"... some students find the temptation of network access (E-mail and chat, in particular) to be so great as to lead them to use these facilities when they should be sleeping," they noted.
"In the early years of our network, we were able to monitor this activity because it involved logging into our server. The log files were e-mailed to dormitory faculty who could then discipline violators of our 'lights out' times. More recently, however, the advent of modern operating systems and the Internet has made monitoring nearly impossible. As a result, Peddie will take the new step of turning off network access entirely during the hours of midnight to 5 a.m. each night."
"Overall," the educators added, "the effect of wiring dormitories is to reduce the ability of dormitory supervisors to supervise in the traditional ways. As a consequence, dormitory faculty must discuss, and determine what monitoring and supervision will best serve the student in a networked environment. Part of this must inevitably be in the spirit of allowing students the freedom to make errors and learn from them."