Gibraltar High School’s New Notebook

The next evolution in education has arrived at Gibraltar High School with the One Laptop Per Student, or OLPS, program.

On Sept. 8, students in the sophomore class were given their own laptop computers, the latest step in the integration of technology into curriculum.

“We’re trying to simulate what is happening in universities and progressive high schools across the country,” says Steve Minten, the school’s technology coordinator.

The students will keep the Dell Vostro 3400 laptops throughout high school, using them to take notes in the classroom, turn in assignments, and produce presentations, and have Smart Board documents sent to them. The purchase of the computers is funded through a federal Rural Education Achievement Program grant (REAP), which will cover the cost of purchasing the computers for the first three years, approximately $37,000 per year. Each student must pay $60 per year for Dell’s full-service maintenance package. At the end of high school, the student keeps the laptop.

“Over the next three years participating students will use computer technology to expand learning opportunities beyond traditional instructional periods as well as beyond the walls of our school,” High School Principle Kirk Knutson wrote in a letter to parents about the program.

The laptops have 14” screens, HDMI ports (which allow them to be easily connected to projectors or TVs), and are “super fast,” according to Minten.

“We wanted to buy the strongest piece of educational tool we can at this time,” says Superintendent Steve Seyfer. “These students are going to go into college with a very good tool and very well-prepared. More and more, the education they’re engaged in requires more and more digital interaction.”

Seyfer recounted a meeting between the school board and an instructor from St. Norbert’s College who talked about the importance of being proficient in computer technology for incoming freshmen. Turning in assignments, communicating with professors and fellow students, and participating in online forums are integral parts of college education today.

“This initiative will assist the district in preparing students to be technologically literate,” Knutson says. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Statistics, five of the 10 fastest growing occupations are computer-related.

Minten says monitoring how the students use the laptops inside the school is not as big a concern as might be imagined. Once, students tried to get away with passing notes in the classroom, or doodling in notebooks. Teachers have to monitor student behavior with pencil and paper, now they must do the same with computers.

“In my opinion, it’s the student’s stuff,” Minten says. “That ‘stuff’ used to be pencil and notebook, now it’s a computer. They have the ability to blast music or game in class, but they don’t have the right to do it.”

Websites like Facebook and YouTube are not accessible inside the school, eliminating two prime distractions. Students will take the computer home at night and be responsible for it, just like a textbook.

Minten is working on other projects that dovetail with the OLPS program. That includes getting high-speed Internet on busses. One project would place a Cellcom router on the bus so students can do homework on the bus going home. This is a particularly enticing idea for participants in extracurricular activities, which at Gibraltar regularly requires spending 3 – 6 hours on a bus per trip.

Minten would also like to place a router on the school’s tower that could reach as far as two miles, providing more students with access.

The school conducted a survey last year that revealed that 60 percent of families in the district now have high-speed Internet access. It’s not perfect, but it is an improvement over just three years ago, and makes the incorporation of technology into the school easier to do.

In three years, when the REAP funding runs out, the school will apply for further funding and can shift costs to make the OLPS program a permanent part of Gibraltar education. But Seyfer recognizes that laptops might not be the strongest educational tool for long.

“I remember colleagues coming back from conventions wide-eyed talking about the Internet,” Seyfer recalls. “Then it was email, then people waving floppy disks and talking about how much could be stored in them. There’s always something. We’ll evolve with it.”

In three years, it could be that the iPad is a better educational device, or more likely, a device we haven’t seen yet. And today’s students will look back and pine for the simpler days of education, “when everyone just typed notes on a laptop, before all these touch screens and holograms.”