Digital Generation: Blog

The Power of 1:1

Wednesday, 2 April 2008

Orange Grove Primary is a tiny public school in the foothills of Perth. With only 120 students, eight teaching staff and a miniscule budget, it might seem an unlikely place to find the beginnings of the ‘education revolution’. However, what is happening in this tiny school is transforming the way that its students, staff and community members think about about education.

Over several years, Orange Grove Primary has developed a reputation for the innovative use of technology. Every teacher contributes to the school blog, students publish their work in podcast form and it is common to find students working on collaborative international projects.

However, the school is now taking its biggest step forward to date. From the start of 2008, every student from Year 4 - 7 has been equipped with their own Apple MacBook computer. These machines are taken home by the students and provide a seamless transition between the learning that occurs inside the classroom and the learning that occurs outside of school hours.

Community Involvement

e key to the success of this program has been the engagement of the school community. Over the past six months, there has been a whole-school conversation about how best to prepare students for a 21st century future. Out of this, the school developed a clear vision which combined ‘good old-fashioned teaching’ with the best that new technology has to offer.

Parents strongly supported this vision, and were willing to contribute financially to make it a reality. Hence, the vast majority of laptops are parent-funded, either through a lease arrangement or an outright purchase.

As a public school, it was essential that the program remain accessible to every family in the school community. Families in financial hardship (approximately 20% of enrolments) are provided with a laptop for use during school hours only. Many of these families are already seeing the value of a take-home laptop and are trying to find the funds if they can.

Significantly, this program has been implemented with no additional government funding.

Technical Details

Students have been provided with 2.0 GHz MacBooks with 80GB hard drives, 1GB of memory and a combined CD burner / DVD player. The laptops have been pre-installed with the Apple iLife and iWork suites plus a variety of open-source educational programs.

Students connect to the Internet via the school’s secure wireless network or through the students’ home Internet connections. Parental controls and website logging have been activated to minimise the risk of students accessing inappropriate content.

Lease Arrangements

While parents do have the option of purchasing laptops outright, most families have chosen to lease their machines. The lease arrangement is designed as a package deal, which includes:

• the MacBook;
• extended warranty;
• insurance; and
• all software.

It is likely that parents will be able to claim a rebate of up to $375 per annum as part of the Commonwealth Government’s new Education Tax Rebate scheme.

Changing Teaching and Learning

The students at Orange Grove now have instant access to an incredibly powerful piece of technology whenever they need it. This significantly changes the way that teaching and learning takes place.

In place of the paper-based (worksheet!) structure which governs most classrooms, students at Orange Grove increasingly produce their work in digital form. This can be easily stored in a digital portfolio (using the iWeb program) and, if desired, published for an authentic world-wide audience.

Students use their laptops in all learning areas from music to maths, literacy to languages. However, to ensure a balanced curriculum, the community has decided that laptops should not be used for more than 50% on instruction time on any given day.

Possibilities

The excitement is growing steadily in Orange Grove as it dawns on the community just how much power these children now hold in their hands. These laptops give students their own library, their own printing press, their own movie studio and their own recording label. At a time when so many students feel disconnected at school, Orange Grove students are connecting with the world in authentic and powerful ways.

The machines are now in the children’s hands. I can’t wait to see what amazing things they produce.

This is where I will be sharing my ideas, successes and failures in using technology in a primary school classroom.

Please join in the conversation by leaving your comments.