Give Every Maine Seventh Grader an iBook? Are You Serious?

Doug Snow, Larry Frazier, John Martin, Kim Quinn
1 July 2003

Maine Learning Technology Initiative, this project has been happening for the last 2 years

starting with overall view, then looking at 1 school as an example

MLTI history: Gove Angus King's bold idea / vision to move education in a new direction
consulting with high level thinkers about this project, including Seymore Papert
Seymore talked Angus out of going to 3:1, the place you must be for big change is 1:1
One to one changes everything
transformational change-- not incremental change
no longer: time to go to the computer lab and do computers, it can be done at all times

This came about at a time when the state had a surplus: the governor wanted to use the money to make transformational change

Papert: realized at one point that the computer was increasing his intellectual power

big transformation could happen only when there were enough so that each child can have a computer as their personal instrument (me: this has been transformational in my own personal experience as well)
Controversy in the state: very rural and local control, don't always like to be first in taking risks / trying new things
general public and legislature had questions
actually put these people in those classrooms
Formed a task force, governor chose 3 people, legislature chose the rest, only 3 educators, seemed to be a stacked deck of legislators who were opponents
unanimous report was supportive, that was an incredible achievement

Maine RFP Process

really wanted to be different, not just an educational buy
wanted to think about all the needs
focus was on educational use and functionality
asked for portable wireless device, asked for tools generically not application specific, asked for support and maitenance (240 buildings in the state)
wanted wireless infrastructure
RFP out in September
Responses due in October
Award made in December to Apple computer

Necessary pieces for success

partnership was key element
professional development
hardware / software
network infrastructure
support / maintenance

Scope

9 regions
245 schools
38,062 iBooks (1+ iBooks per square mile in Maine)
2766+ airports (wireless stations-- environment growing on a daily basis)

After the project started the state discovered some schools they didn't know about it!

iBook is like the tip of the iceberg, as to what is happening below it

Timeline

contract award: Jan 2002
exploration sites: Feb 2002
wireless networks completed in 245 schools by July 2003
teacher training started in June 2002 and is ongoing
7th (1) iBooks - Aug 2002
etc...

iBooks

generic yet personal
secure yet flexible
OS X custom image (people can add to the base image)
everyone gets "white" - that is a significant challenge with the number of iBooks and just how many there were

Wireless

school readiness checklist, before the wireless sitesurvey
defining instructional areas
online tracking system
existing infrastructure - 10BT, 10B2, lots of different network infrastructure
everyone gets "white"

Staff Development: what does it really mean when it is all mobile, all wireless?

out of the box
onto your lap
into your work

Apple hired two former Maine educators put together "Getting to know your iBook" for Maine educators

"It is a journey, not a destination"

former principal and special education director let the professional development effort

was clear from the start that significant funds needed to be spent on professional development
wanted to build a systemic capacity to do the work, but build at the classroom/building level

Outcomes:

provide rich and equitable resources to all students
increase student engagement and learning
increase collaborative learning environment for students and educators
increase community engagement

Process

set up 9 regional exploration sites
established a statewide human PD network of teacher leaders and content leaders, supported by $1 million from Gates Foundation (in Maine they really value teacher leadership) - these teacher leaders receive stipends
- specifically asked for teachers who didn't necessarily have a strong technology background, but were well grounded in teaching and learning
Create virtual collaboration network for all students and staff - email is available for everyone, campus can
Assessment for Learning Foundation: wanted work grounded in very good classroom assessment tools, to show evidence of learning, it is not just about running an iMovie

Process (2)

Develop and support school leadership teams
conduct regional meetings, vision, coherence, with school goals, capacity building
provide staff development: principals, tech coordinators, teachers
enable content meetings: develop a collaborative learning environment "walk the talk", focus of the learner
most of the problems have NOT been with technology or teachers, bubt with the campus technology leadership team

Wanted all PT done during the day

meet by content area at regional centers, network together, stay in touch with each other afterward via email

Components of professional development also include:

www.mainelearns.org
Also use First Class to share and collaborate, have conferences where teachers are able to share
State of Maine dedicated $9 million for databases to support the project
content leaders work with librarians, how to use the databases

Want to really promote project based learning

Now shift focus to town of Yarmouth, ME - north of Portland

Harrison Middle school has about 540 faculty
will have about 280 laptops in the building next year
had already been on this road, but this project has assisted ourself

"Things are only impossible until they're not." - Captain Picard

The whining/doubting has changed into being supportive

Transparent Technology

doing our work better
doing things in ways we never could have
doing things we've never done before (this was really exciting)

What makes for good tech integration

A good technology plan (and its integration with MLTI project)
Leadership Team Development - having administrators involved at this level is vital / critical, in the decisionmaking

Yarmouth Integrated Model

Expectations for secretaries: powerschool, administrators: modeling, staff: goal setting, students: competencies (years ago staff had to make one of their goals technology related-- in the past these focused on word processing, letters to parents... now they are more content based -- student standards are based on ISTE
Equipment in classrooms, labs, offices, mobile -- netowrks, fiber, wired and wireless, assistive technology, servers: Appleshare with Windows access, cameras, video, scanners, standardized software: Appleworks and Office (have standardized on some software: ie have told people they won't support WordPerfect)
Staff Development: before and after school, graduate class, leadership academy that has been ongoing for 14 years, release time, ETEP sessions, one on one...
Resources: coordinators and ed techs, service contract, filtering: sonicwall, AUP - staff and students, each other

Try to triage support requests: sometimes it is technical questions, sometimes they are teachable moments

needs to be someone there to help teachers, help them take the next step

Stage of teacher development from ACOT has been verified with Maine iBook project

Entry: only if I have to, fear and anxiety
adoption: productivity, taking control, bannermania
adaptation: 1st class assignments, known curriculum
1st 3
etc etc
incremental change happened until 2002 when iBooks came and transformational change happened

"So if we really want to change we have to create 1:1 computing environments"

Fostering a Learning Community

Had a teacher ready to retire part of the pilot project, didn't resign in June because they were having so much fun and wanted to keep learning

Keeping iBooks powered up has been one of the biggest issues because the students are using them all the time

They had a wireless network in place, but after doing the assessment Apple installed 17 more, it wasn't based on coverage it was density

After iBook setup they had "D-Day" - day the kids got their iBooks

Because the teachers had already had their training in the summer

Was some controversy over taking them home, not all schools allowed take home, didn't go home until January, had to get processes and procedures in place that involved the school board

Had mandatory parent meetings

ME: These people will be great resources to consult when it comes to imaging iBooks

iBooks come with Powerful Digital Tools

Access
Productivity
Creativity

Takes longer to get one out of the box than it takes to get it on the network

Looked at Atomic learning for SD, MS Office, etc.

Sending iBooks home

their school thought it was very important they went home
treat the iBook like a text book, no sign out
school committee (board) guidelines
school travel presented special situation
insurance
parent sign-off (3 optiosn: do nothing, rider on homeowners, group policy option that was provided for low income)
students don't have to take iBook homes

Critics say

middle school students not responsible
MS students not mature enough to handle this
they can't take care of their bookbags, how will they take care of iBooks

All of this is not true

"We are not there yet, we are nomads"

Data: Absences, Tardies, Discipline

attendence up significantly
discipline down significantly
if kids aren't coming to school and aren't engaged, you've got problems

Mid year report

indicates laptop program is having positive impacts on teachers and instruction, and on students' engagement and learning
other findings: collaborating more frequently with a larger pool of people
notion of self: teachers indicate a profound change in concept of themselves as a teacher and their definition of the act of teaching
"they are doing more stuff" - you go into these schools and are amazed at what the students are doing and the questions they have for you

Person who ran educational programs for President Clinton said a few words about this...

there was such a sense of working together, partnership: from school, state, regional, and vendor level
most compelling thing: by the 3rd school, she realized no matter where we were in Maine, whatever we were going to see would be predicatable-- no talk about technology, questions about content and curriculum, skills
it is not the Maine laptop initiative, it was more about learning than laptops
people say it is not going to last in Maine, think we need to go to a partial solution: we need to start thinking about 1:1 - what would this cost compared to the latest jet airplane or aircraft carrier (it is less than an aircraft carrier to do this across the country)
we need to focus on oportunities for learning
you should go see this firsthand!
some teachers now saying: how could I teach these students ADEQUATELY without these tools

Creativity is what will drive this: keeping pace with creativity and the rate of change is impossible on the Windows platform

Concerns about students off-task on the internet: engagement is so high now, a lot of problems have gone away

if teachers had problems with classroom management before they still have problems
individualized learning: kids that need to go ahead can
differentiated instructions
trust and respect in the classroom: if that is what you give that is what you get
consistent rules and guidelines in training: teacher and student behavior

For storage: they just bought tables, not special cabinets

Plan is to go into the high schools, now the issue is what are they going to do, kids have had these for 2 years and we can't take them away when they go to high school

Thanks to Maine, we are in the "leave no child untested" era, for being the leaders

State of Maine and Apple are working hard to tell the success stories here for the benefit of other states

Back to Wesley's NECC 2003 Notes