As Montgomery residents decide on a plan to provide every high school student and teacher with computers, other school systems report glowing success.
By: Kara Fitzpatrick
MONTGOMERY Blame it on the Cookie Monster.
A three-ring notebook and a box of Crayolas will no longer keep students at the forefront of learning.
This is a generation of digital learners students who wish to see, hear and interact with what they are learning.
"It goes right back to Sesame Street," said Montgomery School District Technology Director Gail Palumbo, who recalls television programs as being dull when she was growing up. But, she said, that is not the case for children who roam the halls of today’s schools. Students nowadays are likely very familiar with feathery Big Bird and the rest of the crew who use rapid television bits to educate.
Sesame Street "has a lot of quick flash, a lot of turnaround … numbers, letters they jumped from thing to thing. I attribute a lot of the difference in learning to television," Ms. Palumbo said.
"Sesame Street started kids off to multi-tasking," she added.
On April 19, Montgomery residents some aggravated, others enthusiastic will approach the polls and decide the fate of a long-debated proposal in the school district.
Along with electing three candidates to the nine-member Board of Education and casting votes on the 2005-2006 school budget, residents will decide a second ballot question: whether to purchase 1,750 laptop computers one for each student and teacher in the district’s new high school.
Through months of hardly halcyon Board of Education meetings, some members of the public have voiced sharp opposition to that technology, while others have defended the plan. This division of opinion among the public resulted in a March decision by the board to place the $391,705 needed for the laptop plan in the second question with its fate ultimately to be determined by the public.
That extra money, if approved by residents, will be added to the already allocated $350,000 for technology to meet the $750,000 yearly lease cost of the cutting-edge laptop plan and the final element of a $57 million high school scheduled to open this fall.
Eight of the nine board members voted to incorporate the second question on the ballot, with Susan Carter voting against the idea.
Ms. Carter did not return several calls seeking comment for this story. At previous board meetings, she has said the computers represent an excessive expense that could have negative side effects.
All that glitters is not gold.
The one-to-one computer model as it often is called has some pitfalls, mainly the amount of money needed to acquire the devices.
With school taxes rising regardless of the outcome of the referendum by about $1,000 this year for the average homeowner, if the public approves the budget those who philosophically agree with the laptop purchase may nevertheless be inclined to vote with their pocketbooks.
According to Superintendent Stuart Schnur, supplying the laptops would add a modest fraction to the tax bill about one cent on the rate, amounting to $50 for the average homeowner.
And proponents of the plan to purchase the laptops say the computers would act as a necessary last touch the angel on the top of a nicely decorated Christmas tree that is the district’s new high school.
Opponents argue that that angel is excessive and will weight down the tree.
The alternative to the individualized laptops is a downsized four-to-one model, which includes laptops for every teacher, two hard-wired desktop computers in each classroom and one laptop cart shared among four classrooms. The cost for this option is about $350,000 over a four-year lease period or $400,000 less per year than the controversial one-to-one plan.
Dr. Schnur has expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the alternative.
"The four-to-one won’t get used as much," he said. "There will be some subjects where technology won’t be infused if it’s just pockets of infusion, some kids will master the skills, some won’t."
So what’s the difference? What really are the benefits and the complications of this increased technology?
There are plenty of educators who can provide an answer.
One-to-one programs are not as rare and extravagant as critics may think. Myriad public schools across the country have elected to supply the cutting edge in technology for their students in the hope that it will better prepare them for the increasingly competitive top colleges and job market.
Calculating exactly how many schools have adopted computer-based learning is difficult, said Ann Flynn, director of education technology for the National School Boards Association, because of the various methods of piloting the program.
"There’s a lot of cases where it is not a whole district," said Ms. Flynn. One example, she said, is for a district to provide all freshmen with laptops. As each new freshman class receives laptops, the district slowly transitions the computers into the school’s mindset.
Ms. Flynn said she believes the nation’s schools are heading toward the one-to-one computing model.
It will become "as commonplace as a one-to-one textbook model for students," she predicted.
That surely rings true in Maine.
Beginning in the fall of 2002, the state started providing laptops to each seventh- and eighth-grade student and teacher about 34,000 computers.
The program took flight with the drive of then-Gov. Angus King, who believed the deployment of technology would help students excel. A one-time state budget surplus was used to fund the project, which cost $37.5 million.
Although the tools for the increased push to infuse technology into schools vary from district to district, Ms. Flynn said with some schools using laptops while others have chosen palms or tablet laptops districts are scrambling to snatch up the digital devices.
"There’s a lot of conversation that, frankly, the tool will continue to improve," Ms. Flynn said. "I think if you look into the future, you will reach a point that it is just as common for a student to have (a laptop) as a notebook."
But forget the future. Some districts are jumping into time machines and getting a head start.
And Montgomery would like to join them.
Dr. Schnur is not a novice to technology.
In fact, he has immersed himself in computer technology since it came to the fore in the 1980s. He has shared his expertise through service on numerous boards involved with technology in education, and he’s the chairman of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators’ Technology Committee.
On a snowy afternoon in early March, he sits in his office, a conference table stretched in front of him, clanking away on his Sony VAIO computer. He is preparing a presentation for the evening’s board of education meeting a meeting where computers likely will come up as a subject.
"I really thought it was a no-brainer," Dr. Schnur said of the laptop plan that would fill the hundreds of backpacks at Montgomery High this fall.
He said he was astonished by the community’s reaction.
"I don’t know if it is a ‘enough is enough’ situation," Dr. Schnur said of critics of the 2005-2006 school budget, which totals $67.9 million, that taxpayers will vote on later this month.
Dr. Schnur says he believes strongly that technology can greatly improve academics.
"I really believe in it," he said, recalling the days in the early 1980s when he was introduced to computers an Apple that would be classified as laughably primitive by today’s standards.
"You had to use a cassette tape recorder as a drive," he said, adding, "I just got hooked on the fun stuff (you could do) with a computer."
But Dr. Schnur is not looking to merely have fun with technology.
"It will take kids to levels that we can’t even conceive," he said.
More than 650 miles away from the comfortable confines of Montgomery High School, 974 students are becoming accustomed to the 6-pound addition that has supplanted texts in their backpacks.
Kershaw County, S.C., is one of the many districts that have taken the plunge into higher technology.
All of the nearly 1,000 freshmen in the district’s three high schools were issued Hewlett-Packard laptops in January, the first stage of a technology phase-in that eventually will reach all high school students. The initiative will cost $8 million over four years for the district.
A diverse community situated about 35 miles northeast of Columbia, the state capital, Kershaw County embraces "a lot of different types of kids," said Dana Morris, chairman of the district’s nine-member school board.
"Our technology was getting old we had 4,000 computers and 3,000 were obsolete," Mr. Morris said. "The kids were getting more access to computers in the elementary school than in the high school."
Mr. Morris said the program already is reaping benefits most obviously in the way the classroom is operating.
Students, he said, now are learning at their own pace, the classroom is more engaged, and pupils are becoming more independent learners.
Not to mention they are learning about technology itself.
"It’s just a job skill you want them to have," Mr. Morris said. "If you don’t have these skills, you’re going to be at a disadvantage.
"If you’re going to put them on the workforce today, they’re not competing in a local market. By the time they reach the end of their careers, they are competing with people from all over the world," Mr. Morris said.
And, he said, the district has been able to level the educational playing field and erase the digital divide. A father of two high school students, Mr. Morris said his children have never handwritten a paper.
But there are numerous children in Kershaw County where the median family income is $44,838, according to the 2000 census who have "never had that chance to play on a computer," said Mr. Morris.
In Montgomery where the median family income is $129,150, according to census figures school administrators admit that closing the digital divide is not one of the primary reasons for aiming to increase the number of student and teacher computers.
According to Dr. Schnur, a non-scientific study conducted by the district determined about 94 percent of township households already have at least one computer.
But it’s not so much a machine as it is an educational philosophy, according to educators. It’s that "anytime, anywhere" learning and "using the tool as it’s meant to be" that will improve students’ education, Ms. Palumbo believes.
Ms. Palumbo said that although most Montgomery households have a computer, children often don’t have access to the device because a family member is using it or it doesn’t have the correct software for school-based assignments.
"Computers are here to stay," Ms. Palumbo said. "In order to prepare our children for the future, they need to know how to use the tool."
Educators say teachable moments are easily accessible with laptops.
"To watch a cell divide in front of you in a science lab has a greater impact on students than seeing the stages in a static picture," said Terry Moore, principal of Godwin High School in Henrico County, Va.
Henrico County, located north of Richmond, the state capital, lays claim to launching the nation’s first one-to-one laptop program.
In 2001, 25,000 students in grades 6 to 12 were issued laptops in 22 of Henrico County’s schools. The program costs between $7 million and $10 million per year, said Lloyd Brown, district technology director.
Mr. Brown and Mr. Moore say the program has proved very successful in the school district.
"Each content area has their own methodology for using the computer as an educational tool," said Mr. Moore. "We try not to force technology into the lesson, but rather use it to enrich and enhance the learning environment."
Like the pupils in Henrico County, students in Kershaw County, S.C., are taking to the technology.
Dee Christopher, principal of Kershaw County’s Lugoff-Elgin High School, said students are more involved in their education. "This is discovery that we’ve never seen before," he said.
"Class time was like going on a long trip with your parents without your CD player," said Mr. Christopher, describing how one student saw school in the pre-laptop days.
Closer to home, in the Pascack Valley Regional School District, located in Bergen County, the district has employed New Jersey’s only one-to-one program.
Pascack Valley, a regional district that includes four municipalities Hillsdale, Montvale, River Vale and Woodcliff Lake mirrors Montgomery’s affluent population. Together, the four towns have an average median family income of more than $100,000.
Around the Thanksgiving holiday, after voter approval of a second question, the Pascack district issued 1,950 laptops to its students and faculty in two high schools. Partnering with Sony, the district’s project came with a price tag of $2.4 million to lease the machines over four years, said Pascack Superintendent Ben Tantillo.
Dr. Tantillo said the program, although in its beginning stages, already is having an effect on learning.
Students "love it," said Dr. Tantillo. "They take more responsibility for their learning. Our students are making more critical-thinking decisions. They are more organized."
As an educator who is aware of the process Montgomery has gone through in deciding whether to follow suit, he said, "If your high school is state of the art, you need to equip the school for the 21st century. To me, for Montgomery, it’s a no-brainer."
But the question for many critics is: If students have the computers at their fingertips when they exit the school bus at the end of the day, why should taxpayers fund additional resources that, they feel, may prove redundant?
Montgomery isn’t the only district to have grappled with the hefty price tag that cutting-edge technology bears.
The Kutztown Area School District, situated in a small university town west of Allentown, Pa., opted to issue 700 Apple laptops to the students and faculty in its single high school in October.
While doing minor renovations to the high school’s older wing, it was estimated that the cost to replace the building’s four traditional computer labs would be substantial. So the district began to compare that cost to implementing a one-to-one laptop model, said Kutztown Area School District Superintendent Brenda Winkler.
"The one-to-one model was going to be more expensive," Dr. Winkler said. But "in five, six, seven years, when another major renovation was needed, we would lose all of that infrastructure," she added.
In the end, the district decided to fund the $885,000 initiative through local tax dollars and a $40,000 grant through the state of Pennsylvania. The technology is something Dr. Winkler said she is proud to offer the area’s students.
"You should see the incredible resources that the kids have available and that they are using for research," Dr. Winkler said. "It has increased motivation and engagement in the classroom. It’s just amazing."
For students at Kutztown Area High School, the laptop "isn’t a sidekick for instruction this truly is the instruction," Dr. Winkler said.
But before hundreds of sparkling screens and keyboards eager for action invade the classroom, there are other obstacles to overcome aside from footing the bill. Concerns raised during Montgomery board meetings include security, theft, breakage and the district’s ability to properly prepare its teachers for the computers.
Most of Montgomery’s concerns are hurdles already faced by other districts.
To combat theft, the Kershaw County School District placed GPS technology into each machine that tracks its location, when necessary. If the Internet is accessed when the computer is reported stolen, area police can locate the machine.
In addition, the community distributed a list of the laptops’ serial numbers to local pawnshops. "We wanted the community to recognize if one of these things was not where it was supposed to be," said Mr. Morris.
In Pascack Valley, software that Dr. Tantillo describes as "similar to LoJack" is installed in each computer. "We have not had one stolen laptop," he reported.
Breakage will be managed by providing the student with a disabled computer with a "loaner," explained Ms. Palumbo at past Montgomery board meetings. The company that is awarded the lease contract would quickly repair and replace the broken device.
The issue of controlling the use of the computers how to manage more than 1,000 eager teenagers on a machine that is the single most available window to the world is a little trickier. Most educators will say a student’s intention is the same, whether the tool used to obtain inappropriate material is a laptop or a book.
"I certainly accept that some kids will use the computer for the wrong thing," Dr. Schnur said. "You can’t protect everybody all of the time."
He compared the scenario to a public library where, he said, if a child so wished, he or she could locate inappropriate material. But instead of closing the library, Dr. Schnur said, "What we try to do is stop them from reading that book."
School administrators say that if the one-to-one model is implemented, the computers will be outfitted with the proper software designed to curb children from accessing inappropriate Web sites.
To combat breakage problems, Montgomery has indicated that like many other districts with student-laptop programs it will adopt a voluntary insurance program that can be purchased by each student. Other districts that have opted for the program have typically charged about $50 per computer per year. The students likely would be responsible for the cost of repairs on an uninsured laptop, the district has indicated.
Ms. Flynn said problems, although present, are often overestimated.
"Some of the negatives that people have worried about simply have not materialized," said Ms. Flynn, adding the biggest task is teacher training.
Most educators will not argue that one of the clear challenges when adopting the technology is preparing those who educate the class for an altered environment.
"You just can’t put these things in the hands of kids and teachers and expect it to work like magic," Dr. Winkler said.
Kutztown Area High School has created an Apple mentor group 16 teachers who have been through four full days of training. Every teacher is required to attend three days of training, said Dr. Winkler.
Educators say that once the laptops are in their possession, teachers seem to embrace the technology.
"Teachers have grown professionally at an incredible rate," said Mr. Moore, the Henrico County principal. "If you talk to individuals that questioned the initiative in the beginning, they may hurt you if you tried to take the laptop away.
"It is the future, and our teachers and students have become accustomed to having information at their fingertips as well as making many tasks easier," Mr. Moore added.
Montgomery administrators say they are well aware of the training that will be required to successfully infuse the technology, and they have allocated more than $100,000 in the budget for technology-based professional development.
If it is one thing Dr. Schnur would like to avoid, it’s using the tool in a lackluster fashion.
"I call it ‘PowerPoint listless,’" Dr. Schnur said. "Sometimes teachers, instead of infusing technology, they use technology.
"I don’t want to see them using technology if it doesn’t make them more effective," Dr. Schnur said, expressing confidence that bolstering the curriculum would be inevitable with a one-to-one model.
"All freshman take physics in ninth grade," Dr. Schnur said. "What if they had a computer? How does that not open up a vista of possibilities?"
In a high-achieving district such as Montgomery, Dr. Schnur said he is not looking to merely improve SAT performances.
"I’m not looking for those kinds of things anymore, I’m beyond tests," he said.
Despite the hurdles and costs that must be overcome in order to implement this cutting-edge strategy, educators will tell you there are innumerable benefits.
Tina Barrios, supervisor of instructional technology at Manatee County School District in Bradenton, Fla., said the one-to-one program that has taken flight at 16 of the district’s schools has resulted in a drop in absenteeism, improved student behavior and an overall expansion in learning.
In Manatee, located between Tampa and Sarasota, two complete high schools, three middle schools and 11 elementary schools are operating one-to-one computing.
"It absolutely begins to transform the high school," said Ms. Barrios. "It sort of opens their learning. It’s the single most dramatic thing I’ve seen to affect the classroom in a very positive way.
"That’s not to say there are no bumps and bruises," Ms. Barrios said. "The positives we’ve seen far outweigh any of the technology hurdles."
Andrea Varner, an English and mass media teacher at Manatee High School, agreed with her colleague.
"The sky is the limit," Ms. Varner said of the instruction possible with the laptops. "The doors it opens into the hands of students who have never used one, or surfed the Internet, is beyond words."
But, Ms. Varner said, you can’t always please everyone.
"You will always have the 2 percent who try to destroy everything they touch," she said. "They are the same 2 percent who would have destroyed the textbook. I learned long ago that I am driven by the 98 percent who want to learn."
There is little research available to guide decision-makers in evaluating individualized technology in the classroom.
"It’s too early to have hard data to prove (the impact) of one-to-one," Ms. Palumbo said.
But studies that have been performed by the state of Maine and California-based Rockman Et Al, an independent research and consulting firm specializing in the application of technology to meet education- and business-learning needs, supports the claims of Ms. Varner, Ms. Barrios and other educators.
A 2004 study performed by the Mitchell Institute conducted to determine the benefits of Maine expanding its middle school laptop program to high schools tracked the learning of Piscataquis Community High School students all 285 of whom received a laptop in 2002.
The study found "strong evidence" that the laptop program has improved students’ and teachers’ computer skills and enhanced access to education resources. All of the teachers surveyed in the study as well as a large majority of parents felt the technology has had a positive impact on the students’ computer skills and access to educational resources.
The Mitchell Institute findings also suggested that the laptop program "has improved student motivation and interest in school" with 79 percent of students agreeing that the computers make school work more interesting.
Additional findings by the Mitchell Institute on the effects of the program include increased attendance, heightened student-teacher interaction, improved personalized learning opportunities and enhanced interaction between students whom teachers described as "shy."
Disadvantages found in the Mitchell Institute study include potential for distraction in the classroom, inappropriate laptop use by some students and technology failure that interrupts planned class activities.
The conclusion of the study states, "The program appears to have very few negative aspects, none of them major issues."
In a 2000 study of Microsoft’s "Anytime, Anywhere" learning program essentially a one-to-one model Rockman Et Al found teachers with laptops "show significant movement toward constructivist teaching practices," and students with laptops "consistently show deeper and more flexible uses of technology" than those without laptops.
The Rockman Et Al study found the computer’s influence on standardized test scores inconclusive.
Ms. Palumbo is well aware that the education climate is changing.
"Things are changing, times are changing," she said.
She has already seen much change in her lifetime. She recalls having to refill her fountain pen. "When ball point pens came out, it was such an innovation," she said.
Ms. Palumbo remembers purchasing her first basic-function calculator. For $45, she could add, subtract, multiply, divide and raise a number to a power.
As a teacher in the 1980s, Ms. Palumbo struggled with parents who were "up in arms" about teaching word processing in school, and she received a handless response when, in 1981, she asked her first computer class how many had a computer at home.
Using her past as a map, Ms. Palumbo believes that, down the road, one-to-one technology in schools will be mainstream.
She dismisses public retorts that the laptops are extravagant and unnecessary. "They don’t need it because it’s technology, they don’t need it because it’s computers," she said. "They need it because it has a use."

