Much Ado About Laptops

School Committee Approves High School Initiative

by Muriel Kramer

June 15, 2012 — The School Committee voted unanimously last night to go forward with the 1:1 laptop for next year’s incoming freshman class having passed the threshold of 80% of the respondents willing to lease or provide a device for their child to use. Residents on hand at the meeting in disagreement with the decision spoke largely to concerns with expense and planning for the implementation of the program.

In prepared remarks, resident Jonathan Clark (photo) details his frustration with the program as outlined. “The fact of the matter is that integrating technology as an always-connected requirement should be an option.  To note there was no true way to opt-out of this program.  Should we choose the technology path, I suggest we make the most of our investment.  We should measure our investment.  We should be prepared to react to necessary changes based on these measurements.  We should hold those accountable should our investment fail.  I want to see a plan that contains all of these elements in detail.  Anyone worth their paycheck should be able to produce an enterprise deployment plan.  To date there is none….Specifically the current initiative is lacking in details and strength.  You continue to waffle calling it a “pilot” some days and an "initiative" the next.  … It’s bloated in expectations and lofty “feel good” goals. The current plan does not provide critical features like true BYOD and textbooks.  It does not contain any specific metrics to measure, modify and create accountability.  It does not address real life social issues with deploying technology, social networks and real time access to adolescents.  It does not provide basic functionality that all users need - such as backups.  It is not based on any strategy that I can make sense of.”

Rebecca Robak School Committee member asked about professional development for teachers to be ready for implementation of the program. Alyson Geary, Principal at Hopkinton High School (photo), responded that there is an ongoing course that fifteen teachers are going through now. “Our proposal is to have all our teachers go through that.” Additionally, the Department has a new technology coordinator that has been hired to facilitate the implementation and support for the new program.

Jean Bertschmann, School Committee member, spoke in favor of approving the program. “Number 1, you are not obligated to do this.” She pointed out that students are already using Moodle, so this is a platform that teachers and students are familiar with. She continued that teachers at the Middle School and High School are already teaching this way. Bertschmann did ask about students being able to link to printers and scanners at home as well as applications like Facebook and iTunes. REST OF STORY...

Ms. Geary responded that that would be the case. “We want the students to personalize the devices.” Acknowledging that the implementation of the program won’t necessarily be easy she commented that many of her principal colleagues are struggling with implementation. She added, “It’s important to remember there are a lot of parents who are very excited about this.”

School Committee Chairwoman Nancy Burdick then asked for Dr. Landman’s and Dr. DeMello’s recommendations as well. For his part, Landman strongly recommended that the School Committee approve the initiative. Commenting that the group achieved 83% return from parents of next year’s freshman class agreeing to lease or provide their own device, he felt the administrators had met a demanding threshold. Once initiated, he said, “My prediction is that this program will sell itself.”

Dr. DeMello agreed and voiced her complete support of the initiative. She felt that there had been a great deal of homework done on the educational impact not just on the device itself. “I completely support them in the initiative.”

Resident Dana Hall, who had spoken earlier, asked to speak again, but was denied that opportunity in the interest of moving the meeting along, according to Burdick. He asked for “just one more minute” which was not allowed.

School Committee member Scott Aghababian spoke next. “This is the future of education; if we are going to do this, we have to make it work. He made the motion to forward the initiative. All members voted in support of the initiative.

Burdick added comments to the committee advocating for them all to look for opportunities next year to look at the issue of additional expenses that parents face acknowledging the pressures that many families feel with for example bus and athletic fees and expenses like the cost to lease the new laptops. New member Jon Graziano added a comment to Burdick’s suggesting the possibility that this initiative could reduce costs in other ways.

The School Committee will discuss at their meeting next week the facility assessment that was done for the town.

For his report, Dr. Landman offered his thanks to the many professionals and parents that supported him during his tenure in Hopkinton and for all their good will; he wished the district well in the future.