Tom Baines School

1
Tom Baines School
May 5, 2002 Calgary, Alberta
2
IntegrationofWireless Portable Computers

• Tom Baines
• School - Calgary

3
Project Goals

• Determine if wireless portable computers will
  enhance teaching and learning
• Develop processes and procedures that help to
  make the their integration successful
• Determine the total impactof this technology in
  theschool

4
Description

• Integrate 20 portable wireless computers
• Install a reliable wireless radio based network
  in the school
• Develop processes and procedures for the use of
  this technology
• In-service and support teachers in the use of
  this technology
• Evaluate the result of integration of this
  technology

5
Integration Projects

• Projects Completed to date
• Grade 7 Math
• Grade 7 Language Arts
• Grade 7 Life Skills
• Projects To Come
• Grade 9 Social Studies -Email and web development
  
• Grade 7 Humanities - Report writing and use of
  Middle Search on the Internet

6
WPC in Grade 7 Math
Student used the WPC to access a software package
called The Learning Equation by Nelson Canada.

• Orientation and set up went well
• Students had a high percentage with access to
  portable computers at home.
• Students worked well to collaborate using the
  hardware/software
• The class was comfortable working in their own
  classroom

7
WPC in Grade 7 Language Arts
Students were to do research on both the
Internet and with other resources in the library
using WPC.

• Class was doing research in the library
• Integrated well into the library
• Increase in student/computer density
• Ability of teacher to better support the learning
  process

8
WPC Grade 7 Word Processing
Students used WPC to supplement a mini-computer
lab so each student had access to a word
processor and the school servers.

• All students have access to individual computer
  resources
• Students were able to work on their own
• Students able to save files to the school server

9
Design of Wireless Portable Computer System

• Computers were configured so they had similar
  user interfaces as the rest of the computers in
  the school
• Computers could access the wireless network
  anywhere in the school
• All classes have access to the technology
• All resources were made available to the wireless
  computer (same as wired computers)
• Orientation for students and teachers

10
Demographics of Students and Teachers

• All teachers who were hired when the school
  started had to commit to the integration of
  technology
• Most students have computers at home
• 80-90
• School provides computer to take home if not
  available
• School has one FTE to support technology and
  information

11
Changes in theClassroom with WPC-Teacher
Change Positive Negative Access Network
Resources v Access Special Software
(TLE) v Ability to Edit/Proof Students
Work v Ability to work collaboratively v More
space to do research v Ease of use by
students v Time to set up/take down v Durability
of the computer v Quality of work was higher v
12
Changes in theClassroom with WPC -Student
Change Positive Negative Comfort being in their
own room v Easier to work together on TLE v More
focused on work v Time to set up and get
going v Battery died on our computer v Teacher
able to help more v Easy to correct notes on
computer v Could access the Internet to get
info v Got work done done faster v
13
Comments from Teachers

• Students did the work quicker than on paper
• The assignment marks were higher
• Revisions of work were easier
• As teacher I could see what students were doing
  and help them to get on the right track
• The class was more comfortable and on task when
  they stayed in their classroom
• Dead batteries caused problems
• Choice of project presentation went beyond word
  processing - HyperStudio, web pages

14
Conclusions

• Wireless Portable Computing - It works
• As work stations
• Wireless connections
• Students at our school find WPC easy to use
• Interface is the same as other machines
• Orientation provide for students
• Teachers like the flexibility of working in their
  own classroom a benefit