Education Week - Managing the Digital District - October 2, 2013 - S2

Picking the Right Device
For the Right Moment
‘1:X’ computing seeks to tailor digital tools to learning tasks
I
By Benjamin
Herold
n Cindy Nguyen’s first-period psychology class at
Lewisville High School in north-central Texas, digital
devices are everywhere: During a recent lesson,
28 students were using 17 school-issued iPads, two
student-owned tablets, seven smartphones, and one
of the classroom’s five MacBook Air laptops.
It’s the new face of learning in the rapidly changing
Lewisville Independent School District, which
is in the process of giving all 53,000 of its students
access to “the right device at the right time,” part of
a so-called “1:X” initiative that began last spring. District officials
are currently seeking to trademark the “1:X” name, which is also
referred to as “1-to-many.”
Ms. Nguyen, a senior at Lewisville High, summed up the
changes: “First, they gave us our phones back. Then they gave
us iPads. Now, everything is online.”
Experts say the 1:X initiative is rare, positioning this district in
suburban Dallas as a potential trendsetter in the rapidly changing
world of digital K-12 education.
As it is, more than 2,000 schools around the country now pro-
vide each student with their own digital device, according to the
One to One Institute, a Mason, Mich.-based nonprofit providing
support for districts implementing 1-to-1 computing programs.
Many more schools employ a variety of digital technologies that
may or may not fit together coherently.
But the idea of a coordinated strategy to provide students
with access to a variety of devices from which they may choose
depending on the task at hand is a potentially powerful new
development, said Douglas A. Levin, the executive director
of the State Educational Technology Directors Association, or
SETDA, based in Glen Burnie, Md.
“In the professional world, the idea of different devices for dif-
ferent jobs is already a normal way of doing business,” Mr. Levin
said. “It’s unrealistic for schools to think there’s going to be one
killer device that’s going to do all things for all types of learners
in all subjects.”
To date, Lewisville’s 1:X initiative has included introduction
of a bring-your-own-technology program; the purchase of $19.1
million worth of iPads and laptops; $23 million in districtwide
technology-infrastructure upgrades; and extensive training for
staff, students, and parents.
Superintendent Stephen F. Waddell said it’s all part of a new
look at the district’s approach to teaching and learning.
“What really matters is the kind of work students are doing,”
Mr. Waddell said. “We want to see our kids doing work that involves
projects, cooperative and collaborative learning, and inquiry,
and we believe that utilizing digital resources will help
that happen.”
CULTURE SHIFT
However, the type of learning Mr. Waddell described is not taking
root evenly in all classrooms, according to district officials.
The district’s new laptops, intended to allow students to do
in-depth projects and create multimedia content, have so far not
been widely used. And Lewisville’s districtwide computing network,
now being upgraded, is experiencing growing pains.
There are also questions about the long-term sustainability of
an initiative financed in large part by bonds.
But two weeks into the new school year, hundreds of Lewisville
students who had just received tablets were already using multiple
devices to access and share information and assignments,
work in groups, conduct experiments, and prepare presentations.
Though the Lewisville community tends to be conservative,
said Lewisville High Principal Jeffrey Kajs, most have embraced
the 1:X initiative.“I love the 116 years of how things have been
done at this school,” Mr. Kajs said. “But I also have three young
kids, and I know what their education needs to look like.”
Just down the road from Lewisville High stands a water tower
emblazoned with a tribute to the school’s biggest point of pride:
its Fighting Farmers football team, which won the Texas 5A state
title in 1993 and 1996.
S2
EDUCATION WEEK | October 2, 2013
Managing the Digital District >>www.edweek.org/go/digitaldistrict-report
Football is still king in Lewisville, but the district’s student
body—now 31 percent poor and 51 percent African-American,
Hispanic, Asian, or multiracial—is undergoing a major academic
and cultural makeover driven largely by technology.
This year, eight of Lewisville Independent’s 65 schools, as well
as all district students in the 4th, 7th, 9th, and 10th grades, are
involved in the second phase of the 1:X initiative. So far, the district
has purchased 19,300 iPads, 3,880 MacBook Airs, and 1,887
MacBook Pros. The goal is to give every student and teacher access
to multiple devices by 2016.
Superintendent Waddell said the purchasing is driven by the
prominence of mobile computing devices in all walks of life.
“We see highly fluid, highly collaborative work environments
that are becoming more and more creative,” he said. “We want our
kids to be ready for that.”
Like many other districts, Lewisville decided that Apple’s mobile
products were the best fit; a recent survey by Interactive Educational
Systems Design Inc., a market-research firm, found that 80
percent of district technology officials used or planned to use iPads
in their schools over the next two years.
However, Lewisville officials also recognized that effective implementation
of a large-scale device purchase would require dramatic
RIGHT:
Lewisville High School student
Holly Weston studies at home in
Texas with several digital devices
on hand. Ms. Weston has a
degenerative eye disease and
uses magnified letters on her
devices to help with schoolwork.
BELOW:
iPads are just one of several types
of devices made accessible to
Lewisville High students like
Jquarius Wallace, 16, handing over
his new school-issued tablet for
protection; Jordan Brown,18,
seated; and Dallas Beall, 17.
improvements to schools’ technology infrastructure.
In little more than a year, the district has added more than 4,500
wireless access points on its 65 campuses, laid 265 miles of copper
cable, upgraded its firewalls and filters, improved bandwidth to
at least 7GB for all schools, restructured its IT support team, and
streamlined the replacement of outdated school computers.
“Those are exactly the types of things districts should be looking
at,” said Richard Kaestner, a consultant with the Washingtonbased
Consortium for School Networking, or CoSN, a professional
association for school system technology leaders.
“When you add all these devices, you need to understand your
network capacity, break it down into its component pieces, and figure
out where your bottlenecks are likely to be,” Mr. Kaestner said.
Also key, said Mr. Waddell, have been efforts to engage parents,
community members, and teachers in developing the district’s
larger strategic plan. The 1:X initiative, he said, “is really rooted
PAGE S6 >
Photos by Mark Graham for Education Week
http://www.edweek.org/go/digitaldistrict-report
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