The Laptops Are Coming

Michael Burke, director of District Media and Technology Services for Edina (MN) Public Schools, is that rare anomaly in K–12 education: an IT guy who has a true kinship with librarians. He comes by that rapport honestly—Burke was once a library media specialist himself. He also did time in a classroom (high school math) before entering a 20-year career as a library media/technology coordinator. Burke’s work bringing Edina up to technological speed earned him the 2007 Withrow Award for leadership in technology innovation, given by the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) at its recent national conference.

Held March 28–30 in San Francisco, CoSN attracted more than 1,000 attendees to this year’s event, the largest ever for the Washington, DC-based organization, which represents K–12 technology leaders from the public and private sectors. “We are thrilled to have such an unprecedented turnout,” said CoSN CEO Keith Krueger, citing the “timely and relevant topics” of the program as creating a big draw for attendees.

Among those topics, 1-to-1 computing was the focus of no fewer than five sessions at CoSN. Pilot programs that have involved handing a personal wireless laptop to every student for use at home, as well as school, were showcased, as were research findings on 1-to-1’s ability to raise student interest and, notably, test scores. In addition, districts with 1-to-1 programs have reported improved writing skills among students and higher attendance rates. That’s according to researcher Jeanne Hayes, of the consulting firm the Hayes Connection, who presented on other intriguing findings of the national survey America’s Digital Schools 2006. More than 23 percent of the 2,500 school systems surveyed reported that they are implementing 1-to-1 programs. Meanwhile, 48 percent of district leaders said they intend to buy a personal computer for every student by 2011.

The trend doesn’t surprise Mike Belcher, senior product manager of Gateway. “We’re at the stage where [1-to-1] is starting to make sense. The data is available.” It was the computer giant’s first outing as an exhibitor at CoSN, where the exhibit hall, featuring more than 90 companies, was double the size of last year’s, according to Krueger. However, CoSN still dwarfs in comparison to the largest ed-tech event, the National Educational Computing Conference, sponsored by the International Society for Technology in Education, which draws about 16,000 educators. But Kathy Booth, a 33-year classroom teacher who now works as a rep for Promethean, a whiteboard company, says of CoSN, “the smaller venue is better, more personal.”

Indeed, this reporter had the opportunity to sit down with Burke, who shared his own perspective of 21st-century learning. Under his leadership, Edina moved from having a single computer per classroom and just one computer lab to a 4-to-1 student-to-computer ratio. His latest endeavor: transitioning to an IP video distribution system. “That changes the role of the media specialist,” says Burke. Freed from having to check out and track analog tapes, media specialists can now work closely with teachers, helping them search for curriculum-related programs. All nine of Edina’s full-time librarians, one in each school in the district, are also assigned to district curriculum committees, says Burke.