WESTFIELD – In an age of increased availability of advanced technological devices such as tablets and smartphones, a burgeoning movement called bring-your-own-device, commonly referred to by it’s acronym “BYOD”, has emerged in school districts throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, leading School Committee member Ray Diaz to seek to push a similar effort in Westfield.
Diaz got the discussion going prior to a meeting of the Westfield School Committee last night, at a meeting of the School Committee’s Educational Planning & Technology Subcommittee.
“We’re looking to come up with a plan and shape the curriculum around it,” he said.
Diaz went to a February conference in the eastern Mass. town of Burlington this year in an attempt to see the effects of devices on the classroom.
Burlington’s school district went to a one-to-one program at it’s high school three years ago, outfitting all 1,100 students with Apple iPads for school hours, a program that they have rolled out to the district’s middle school and all four of it’s elementary schools, to a total of 3,700 students.
“Once we deployed it at the high school, we knew the middle school was the next step,” said Dennis Villano, the director of technology integration for Burlington’s school district. “It was very successful at the high school, and we feel the earlier it’s deployed, our students are prepared for the high school earlier.”
Villano said the town has been very supportive, and that’s been due in large part to efforts by the school district to showcase to the community the benefits of the technology.
“We hold monthly ‘tech nights’ to show parents the effects and help them better understand (the technology),” he said. “We didn’t do it just to boost MCAS scores. We’re in a strong tech area, but we still want to show the community the benefits.”
Of course, whenever devices such as the iPad, the latest version of which retails for $450, enter into the conversation, their effect on a school’s budget comes into question, but Villano says the devices have had a minimal effect on his district financially.
“We didn’t have to raise or increase the tax burden on the town,” he said. “We reallocated printing and textbook costs and from other areas, and cut a substitute position at the high school.”
Villano said implementing the one-to-one program for the entire district costs $190,000 a year and is “fiscally responsible.”
“You do need printers and tech support on some level, but not like you would (without the devices),” he said.
Villano added that Burlington was the first district in the Commonwealth to implement a one-to-one program with tablets but he concedes that other states ennacted similar programs with laptops prior.
“Maine had been one of the first states whose districts put forth laptop programs,” he said, adding that current Burlington Assistant Superintendent Pat Larkin had visited schools in Iowa which had also implemented one-to-one laptop programs.
“We built a committee with administrators, teachers, parents, and students,” he said. “It’s about communicating with the community, talking about reasons for using this technology, showing them how you’re doing.”
When asked how these programs can be implemented throughout the state, Villano said it’s all in the prepwork.
“Equipping the teachers (with the devices), giving them the tablets six months before the students,” he said. “And building up your infrastructure, you have to have an outstanding wireless network.”
A way expensive academic ventures are generally justified is through performance increases on test scores and college placement exams, but according to Villano, while scores haven’t yet seen immediate spikes, the devices are prepping students for the future through valuable experience.
“Our scores have been steady. They haven’t gone up or declined,” he said. “But the kids are getting experience, the ‘unintended benefits’, as we call them. Kids are working in product testing with Apple and Google. They’re developing their own conferences with people from all over the world. They’re getting experiences they wouldn’t normally have (without these devices).”
While the program has enjoyed growth and success in Burlington over the past three years, the wheels began turning, albeit slowly, for Westfield last night, with Diaz suggesting the subcommittee test out the devices in select classes at the elementary, middle, and high school levels by the end of the school year.
“I want to form some pilot groups before the end of the year,” said Diaz, who works as a systems architect for MassMutual.
Another avenue Diaz has suggested to the subcommittee included seeking out digital citizenship curriculum for students, which can be downloaded for free online, in an effort to teach students how to be “safe and responsible” in their dealings with the Internet.
Another issue the subcommittee will have to evaluate includes how to increase the strength of the district’s wireless infrastructure, which Ronald Rix, director of technology and business services for the district, is currently in the process of upgrading.
“We’ll have 100 megs of bandwith per school by December 1,” he told the subcommittee.
Westfield Superintendent Dr. Suzanne Scallion, while supportive of the idea of integrating technology, expressed doubts about the proposed implementation, agreeing that further discussion is necessary.
“On the staircase of technology, this is the first step,” she said. “But we’re nowhere near being able to deploy (a program like Burlington). We’re three or four years away.”
Scallion stated her concern with starting the program with elementary schoolers, thinking it may condition them to technology the district simply isn’t ready to commit to completely.
“We should choose a department and pick sixth or ninth grade, so that we can pick from a wider base.”
The subcommitte unanimously agreed that work on policy and an implementation strategy need to be conducted at an additional meeting next month, on a date yet to be determined.
