Life Among the Laptops

A Texas school experiences the joy of going wireless

Barbara Weathers -- School Library Journal, 3/1/2001

Illustration by Jonny Mendelsson

The students in Ellen's American history class had just met with me in the library to discuss their upcoming research assignments. Shortly after class ended, Ellen logged on to her laptop computer. She checked our school library's online catalog for holdings on her topic. Then, she conducted a similar search of the Houston Public Library's online catalog, as well as the online catalogs of local university libraries. She also searched Amazon.com, reading its reviews of some of the materials she had found, and hunting for additional titles that might be helpful. Finally, she checked our electronic periodical indexes, on the lookout for relevant articles.

The interesting thing is that Ellen did all this while sitting outside at a picnic table, beside the school.

When she determined that she had done enough sleuthing, she hit the print key, carried her laptop back into the building, and headed down the hallway, where she picked up a printout of her resources.

A little more than three years ago, before we became a laptop school, Ellen's preliminary research would have taken a far different route: it would have been more time consuming, more tedious, and perhaps much less successful. Now, instead of spending a lot of time simply gathering resources, Ellen has more time available to study them.

WHAT SHOULD A LIBRARIAN CONSIDER WHEN THINKING ABOUT A LAPTOP PROGRAM

First and foremost, ask yourself, will laptops really help our students to learn better? There is no justification for the program if you aren't convinced that student learning will benefit in a major way.
As a librarian, be prepared to become totally involved in the integration of laptops into the curriculum and school culture. This is no time to be passive. Participate in training, do training that shows teachers how to use electronic resources with their students, be identified as a supportive participant in the process.
Don't forget the importance of books and be aware that people will be watching to see if "the librarian" turns away from information found in print. Stress the importance of finding the right resource--whether it is in a print or electronic format.
Be supportive to teachers who may find the transition to laptops very threatening. Send them Web sites that you have found in their subject areas, look for electronic resources that will strengthen their students' learning, assist them in modifying existing research assignments to include laptop technology.
As you plan for purchasing resources, evaluate whether you want to buy print or electronic versions. This is a huge new area. If you chose electronic delivery, will the vendor allow you to give the students access in the classroom? Access from home?
Verify that your existing library automation system will function in a laptop network. Look closely at your system's specifications. This is one of the most critical pieces, because it is unthinkable to have an automation system that is incapable of being integrated with the school network.
If you choose to upgrade your library management system, look at its specifications. Make sure that it will easily mesh with the sophisticated requirements of a laptop network. Expect the integration to have some bumps--most new integrations do. We did a review of existing systems and chose COMPanion's Alexandria. The company's commitment to making things work in a "trail-blazing" environment has been phenomenal and has been deeply appreciated in a period of many other changes.
Make purchasing decisions--whether for hardware or software--based on learning outcomes, not on how flashy they appear. If students can't benefit from a purchase, it is not a good purchase.
No program of this scope can run smoothly without a strong, enforceable Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) in place. Our AUP was developed long before the laptop program was created and it's consistently reviewed and updated.
If you are the only "tech person" in your building and there are no plans to expand staffing, a laptop program like ours would be close to impossible to run successfully. Once a laptop program is up and running, a workable ratio is one support person to 100 laptops. You need at least one staff member who will do nothing but tech support work.

Why We Decided to Go Laptop

Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart, the private, all-girls' school where I work, has long realized the importance of helping our students become technologically savvy. But the decision to become a "laptop school" did not come quickly or easily. In fact, back in 1997, we were somewhat uninterested when another school invited us to take part in a laptop program. Our technology committee met for months, questioning whether a laptop program would be worthwhile: Would the program be beneficial to our students' learning? Would a laptop program have a positive impact on our school culture? Would it help our students be better prepared for life after graduation? As school librarian, I had an additional worry: Would the library be overlooked once a laptop program was set in place? (As it turned out, I needn't have feared: the school library is now used more than ever. It has become a research hub for many of our students.)

To help address our concerns, we began visiting schools that had existing laptop programs, such as Cincinnati Country Day School and Ursuline Academy in Dallas. When we saw what was talking place at those schools, we began to get excited: it seemed to us that students were learning better. Our informal observations were soon confirmed by two studies that we found. The studies, conducted over two consecutive school years, 1996-1997 and 1997-1998, by Rockman et al., an independent educational research and consulting firm, compared students who used laptops with those who did not. The research concluded that students with laptops used higher-level cognitive skills, such as problem-solving and critical thinking, more frequently than their non-laptop peers. Furthermore, more than four out of five teachers believed that laptops helped their students do better-quality work. (In particular, teachers reported that student writing was much improved.) The studies also found that in schools with laptops, teachers spent a greater amount of their time engaged in one-to-one and small-group instruction. High school teachers in laptop schools actually reported spending twice as much time on those activities as their non-laptop counterparts. (For more information, see "Notebook Programs Pave the Way to Student-Centered Learning" in T.H.E. Journal [Technological Horizons in Education], April 1999, available at www.thejournal.com.)

After we became convinced of the potential benefits of a laptop program, our questions turned to the nuts and bolts: Could our sixth graders withstand an extra seven pounds in their already textbook-stuffed backpacks or would they suffer bodily harm? How would we fund such a program? And should we purchase a wireless network, or should we use traditional wiring? (See "What Should a Librarian Consider When Thinking About a Laptop Program?" at left)

In the end, our laptop of choice turned out to be the Compaq Armada, weighing approximately six pounds. (So far, our students haven't sustained any injuries from lugging their computers around.) And thanks to the board increasing our school's operating budget, we were able to lease laptops for approximately 60 of our middle- and upper-school teachers for the first three years. Faculty also received the training that they needed to work with their students. The teachers took part in an online training program offered by the Microsoft Corp. called "Anytime, Anywhere Learning."

Although none of the schools that we visited had a wireless network, we decided that going wireless was the best choice for us. We were attracted to the mobility and easy access that such a system would provide. We also thought, given the structure of our building, that a wireless system would be easier to install than a wired system. (When our building was renovated in the mid-'90s, we hadn't anticipated laptops, but we did design the building to accommodate advanced computer technologies. That meant only a minimal amount of cabling was required to install a wireless system.) As part of the installation, unobtrusive, small antennas were suspended, about six inches from the ceiling, at nine locations on campus. The antennas would enable our students and faculty to log into the system and print documents while sitting in classrooms, the cafeteria and hallways, and even outside under an oak tree. We also made sure that printers were easily accessible, locating them in the library, in hallways, and in the computer labs. (We encourage our students to print only one copy of what they need--not multiple copies for distribution. As a result, they have become better at deciding what absolutely needs to be printed now and what can be saved in their network folders.)

We also made sure that our system would be accessible from home as well as on campus. Students and faculty who are working at home can connect to our system by logging onto our Web site (to access their e-mail accounts and library resources) or by using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) dial-up adopter.

Finally, we designed the network infrastructure so that it was far more powerful than it needed it to be. Although we originally planned to begin our laptop program with approximately 200 users, the system was designed with the capacity to handle more than 600 laptops at any one time. To date, the reliability of the wireless network has been incredible. So reliable, in fact, that we don't even think about it any more. (For more technical details about our laptop program, see "Tech Specs," below.)

Beyond the Box

TECH SPECS
"Once you've given people their freedom, they don't want to go back," says Janet Thorson (janet_thorson@duchesne.org), Duchesne Academy's director of technology. She feels the Lucent WaveLAN network at the school was a wise and successful choice, as were the laptops the school selected for the students. The school's network is, of course, only partly wireless. The school runs on a conventional Microsoft Windows NT network with six servers, and most of it hooks directly--with wires--into about 250 desktop computers in classrooms, offices, and libraries, and 75 faculty laptops. The WaveLAN section of the network is primarily the middle- and upper-school student laptops; these are Compaq Armadas with Lucent 10- and 11-megabyte direct-sequencing cards. These give the students up to a sizzling 6-megabyte-per-second speed on campus. "Students in the French classes stream live audio and video from the Internet with no pauses," says Thorson. The laptops come with a formidable suite of software-- everything from Microsoft Office 2000 to FrontPage to Hyperstudio, plus math software like Algebra Mentor and Geometer's Sketchpad. The French and Spanish classes use digital textbooks from Glencoe, but in most cases, the wireless students have stayed with paper textbooks. Thorson says that when the school first considered students using wireless laptops, there were two types of wireless networks to consider: direct sequencing (DS), which at the time was being developed by Lucent at Bell Labs, and frequency-hopping. While both have their advantages, Duchesne decided to go with DS, because DS needed fewer "access Points"--antennas installed in the walls and ceilings (Duchesne's network has nine). "Each access point needs electricity and a 10BaseT port," says Thorson, "The fewer that you need, the simpler the network is, plus it seemed a better long-term solution. And we were right--all the major players in wireless networking have adopted DS." How far can students get from the hallways of Duchesne and still get on the network? "Well," Thorson says wryly, "we've had students who forgot to download homework files drive up to the school gates on weekends"--that's about 150 yards from the nearest access point--"and get on the network."--Walter Minkel

TECH SPECS

"Once you've given people their freedom, they don't want to go back," says Janet Thorson (janet_thorson@duchesne.org), Duchesne Academy's director of technology. She feels the Lucent WaveLAN network at the school was a wise and successful choice, as were the laptops the school selected for the students.

The school's network is, of course, only partly wireless. The school runs on a conventional Microsoft Windows NT network with six servers, and most of it hooks directly--with wires--into about 250 desktop computers in classrooms, offices, and libraries, and 75 faculty laptops. The WaveLAN section of the network is primarily the middle- and upper-school student laptops; these are Compaq Armadas with Lucent 10- and 11-megabyte direct-sequencing cards. These give the students up to a sizzling 6-megabyte-per-second speed on campus. "Students in the French classes stream live audio and video from the Internet with no pauses," says Thorson. The laptops come with a formidable suite of software-- everything from Microsoft Office 2000 to FrontPage to Hyperstudio, plus math software like Algebra Mentor and Geometer's Sketchpad. The French and Spanish classes use digital textbooks from Glencoe, but in most cases, the wireless students have stayed with paper textbooks.

Thorson says that when the school first considered students using wireless laptops, there were two types of wireless networks to consider: direct sequencing (DS), which at the time was being developed by Lucent at Bell Labs, and frequency-hopping. While both have their advantages, Duchesne decided to go with DS, because DS needed fewer "access Points"--antennas installed in the walls and ceilings (Duchesne's network has nine). "Each access point needs electricity and a 10BaseT port," says Thorson, "The fewer that you need, the simpler the network is, plus it seemed a better long-term solution. And we were right--all the major players in wireless networking have adopted DS."

How far can students get from the hallways of Duchesne and still get on the network? "Well," Thorson says wryly, "we've had students who forgot to download homework files drive up to the school gates on weekends"--that's about 150 yards from the nearest access point--"and get on the network."--Walter Minkel

During the spring of 1998, we invited parents to several meetings to discuss the new laptop initiative. We asked for their comments, concerns, and suggestions. Parents of middle schoolers were initially concerned about the additional weight that their kids would have to haul around--but the parents' overwhelming response was one of excitement and anticipation. In fact, at no point during the meetings did parents question the wisdom of becoming a laptop school: they firmly believed their children would learn better and be better prepared for the future.

Of course, some parents were worried about the cost of purchasing a laptop. And rightfully so: a fully loaded laptop costs almost $2,000. (This does not include the cost of a network card, which the school provides for each student. We distribute the cards at the start of the school year, and collect them at the end of the year--much like textbooks. This arrangement has proved very successful.) An installment plan was made available for those parents who preferred to pay for their laptops over several years. There was also a sliding scale for those families who could not afford to buy a laptop, with some families paying as little as $25 for a computer.

In August 1998, 150 students (our 7th, 9th, and 10th graders) arrived on campus to attend an event entitled "Out-of-Box" Day. Many parents attended, too, and the excitement was palpable. Seated in the school cafeteria, the students opened their laptop boxes for the first time, removed the computers and cords, and were taught the protocol for logging into our network. Since then, we've added new grades each year. By last fall, all of our students in grades six through 12 had their own laptop computers. Although we did not originally plan that fifth graders would be part of the laptop program, pressure is building for them to be included.

A Lot Has Changed

In the three years since we've become a laptop school, my job has changed radically. As a librarian, one of my biggest challenges has been helping students sort through an abundance of resources and evaluate the best materials for their needs (rather than merely helping them locate materials). I also now spend a greater amount of my time meeting with teachers to plan student projects.

What's come of those collaborations? When students have an American history paper to write, they're required to search two online databases, Dialog and ProQuest, for useful resources. And now, they're required to search our school's electronic catalog and local university online catalogs to see who has the identified resources. Likewise, when our ninth graders study creation myths, they're required to use at least one print resource and one electronic journal article--this provides me with a great opportunity to introduce them to our library's resources. The students are also required to find two Web sites that are appropriate for their topic.

In the past three years, I've also learned that not all assignments work equally well. The most successful assignments require students to use a combination of print and electronic resources: that way, students can evaluate which resources best serve the purposes of a specific assignment. This kind of approach also helps students realize that both print and electronic resources have a place in their work. When teachers require students to use both print and electronic resources, it encourages students to use the library's resources. Then, when students do well on their research papers or reports, they often return to the library, building on what they've learned from their previous assignments.

The least successful assignments seem to be those in which the teachers have not provided guidelines about what types of resources students should use. The result is that students often produce work that is superficially developed--work that does not indicate that students have mastered or understood the content. For example, one of our foreign-language teachers asked her students to do a project on artists. She decided to have the students include a PowerPoint presentation as part of the assignment. Unfortunately, she forgot to require students to use a combination of print and online resources. How did the projects turn out? They looked great, but the students couldn't identify the major works of the individual artists. Why? The students had failed to look at a wide range of both print and online resources, and evaluate which were most appropriate to use. They had simply settled on using the most visually dazzling resources.

Coda

Working in a laptop school has been the most challenging opportunity of my career. The time spent planning curriculum with teachers and keeping up with new resources--if such a thing is possible--has been exciting. Watching our students learn in new and dynamic ways, rising to the challenge of keeping my skills sharp so I can assist in the learning process, thinking (and rethinking) about how our resources can best serve our students' needs--and, yes, even wishing at times that the pace of technological innovation would slow down a little so that I could absorb everything that has happened--have made my experience in a laptop school a source of energy and satisfaction. There's no doubt about it--a laptop school is a wonderful place to be.

Barbara Weathers (Barbara_Weathers@Duchesne.org) is upper school librarian at Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart, in Houston, Texas.