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 "The future is here. It's just not evenly distributed yet."
William Gibson
The purpose of this site is to identify current technology and explore strategies for computing in school and community environments. Our Educational Technology Department strives to work collaboratively with district schools and departments in this process. An understanding of the dynamics of teaching and learning across thirteen grade levels in the curriculum require different technology options to effectively serve all students and teachers. Through thoughtful planning, a school can purchase or use district standard computer systems based on their instructional needs, including- category type of computers, operating system, processor speed, software and web-based applications or services.
Notwithstanding the diverse curriculum needs is also the fact that our student population come from homes and communities that range from the totally wired to the unconnected. In San Diego County, adults predominately live in a world of work that is digitally connected in every way and most of our parents want the same for their children's school. Here are some local starting points to get keep us moving in that direction.
- In 2004, a study conducted by the San Diego Regional Technology Alliance (RTA) found that computer ownership in San Diego County was 81% and home Internet access was 90%.
- This RTA study further discovered that this high percentage was not evenly distributed throughout the region. For example, although Latinos comprise 28% of San Diego’s general population, this ethnic group represents 40% of the “unwired” population.
- In 2006, Informal parent surveys conducted at several of our new center city construction schools reported home internet access between 10% - 20%.
- Currently, student to computer ratios vary across the district from 6:1 through 14:1 in our K-12 schools.
How would schools begin to lower student to computer ratios across the 211 square miles of the district? Imagine if every 3rd - 12 grade student in the district had 100% access to a computer with online connectivity at school, home and in their community. If these conditions were to come to pass within the next several years, how would teaching and learning be different from current practices?
To begin to answer these big questions, one might want to first look at the categories of computing that help students produce authentic work. Three general areas are presented here.
- Mobile Computing with,
- portable writing devices (AlphaSmart Neo's), and,
- entry level laptops for writing, Internet use, calculations, and communication
(analogous to the economy car that can go anywhere in town);
Within mobile computing, we'll also look at the Always-On Learning Initiative (AOLI), currently in the first pilot phase of a three phase plan to deploy a $500 laptop in 1:1 mobile computing across the district.
- Multi-User Computing with thin client desktops for sharing central processing power to push a variety of software or web-based applications to a number of simultaneously connected monitor/keyboard users - (Currently, not a district standard)
(like using mass transit with your peers while at school); and,
- Multimedia Computing with full-featured laptops and desktops for producing and editing text, images and audio for educational content
(the opportunity to drive like a fast car while at school).
Related topics, such as project-based learning, open source and web-based applications will also be identified to support all student and teacher computing.
| | | | 1 | Mobile Computing with a Portable Writing Laptop (AlphaSmart Neo)
 Portable Writing Laptop - 1:1 Mobile Computing Starts with a Digital Primer
Elementary schools need to start purchasing portable writing laptops such as the AlphaSmart Neo to support younger student's writing proficiency and keyboarding skills. Neo's will pave the way for 1:1 as sturdy laptops that can be dropped and keep on working using only three AAA batteries. The Neo can become a "Digital Primer" providing students daily access to the use and care of a laptop. Through proper planning, a school could make the Neo the first laptop in a backpack that will go home and back to school with students in our district.
Let's look at the bang for the buck as AlphaSmart Neo's currently cost $179 a unit compared to a full-featured wireless laptop computer roughly costing $1380 for a MacBook or a IBM ThinkPad with 3 year warranty. If you assume that most elementary children are typically writing with a school computer a majority of the time, schools using Neo's are getting a greater dollar value per student not to mention greater accessibility in the kids hands. Many of our schools presently have anywhere from 6:1 to 10:1 computer to student ratios that often translates to a student touching a computer no more than an hour a week at school. These ratios haven't changed that much since the mid-1980's long before we had laptop computers.
- Put together a Mac or PC laptop cart of 20 computers = $27,000
- Put together 3 AlphaSmart Bundle carts of 90 Neo's = $19,350
- Put together 100 Mac or PC laptops at $1,381 = $138,100.00
- Put together 500 Neo's at $169 = $84,500
- Put together 300 Neo's at $169 = $50,700
- Put together 150 Neo's at $179 = $26,850
For most elementary schools, K-2 students can have instant 1:1 mobile writing computing for under $30,000!
Neo Support Pages
- Neo Training Videos
- Neo Frequently Asked Questions and Support Handouts
- Neo Support Page
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- Mobile Computing with Entry Level Laptops
Mobile Computing is a generic term describing your ability to
use technology 'untethered', that is  not physically connected, or in
remote or mobile (non static) environments. The term is evolved in
modern usage such that it requires that the mobile computing activity
be connected wirelessly to and through the internet
or to and through a private network. This connection ties the mobile
device to centrally located information and/or application software
through the use of battery powered, portable, and wireless computing and communication devices. This includes devices like laptops with wireless LAN or wireless WAN technology, smart mobile phones, wearable computers and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) with Bluetooth or IRDA interfaces. from Wikipedia
A Personal Learning Device (PLD) is a ultraportable laptop or Ultra Moble PC (UMPC) that is lightweight, semi-rugged and designed for students to carry and use at home, school and in the community.
An Entry Level Laptop is configured with price point as king. It typically has an older processor with wireless and Ethernet cards, web browser, a productivity suite of software and smaller hard drive. It may not be loaded with power and multimedia software but has all that is needed for at least 80% of what all people do with a computer, including but not limited to, writing and printing, searching and research, calculations and problem solving, communication and collaboration. With so many web applications and services available in education today, the entry level laptop serves as the 'Internet computer.'
 Rethinking Classroom Laptops file- The $500 Student laptop is a Need Over Want Equation file
- School Laptop Cart Management file
- SDUSD Always-On 1:1 Learning Initiative file
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| | | 3 | Thin Client Computing
(Currently not a district standard option in SDUSD)
 A thin client, sometimes called a lean client, is a low-cost, centrally-managed computer devoid of CD-ROM players, diskette drives, and expansion slots. The term derives from the fact that small computers in networks tend to be clients and not servers. Since the idea is to limit the capabilities of these computers to only essential applications, they tend to be purchased and remain "thin" in terms of the client applications they include. As software as a service (SaaS) gains popularity, it is expected that thin clients will replace desktop PCs in many work and educational environments. In general, they are not as vulnerable to malware attacks, have a longer life cycle, use less power and are less expensive to purchase.
Thin client is also used to describe software applications that use the client-server model where the server performs all the processing. See also: fat client
from searchnetwork.com
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| | | 4 | Multimedia Computing with Full-featured Laptops and Desktops
"Multimedia content is typically used to mean the
combination of text, audio, still or animated images and/or motion video.  - Text and audio
- Text, audio, and still or animated graphic images
- Text, audio, and video images
- Video and audio
- Multiple display areas, images, or presentations presented concurrently
- In live situations, the use of a speaker or actors and "props" together with audio, images, and motion video"
adapted definition from searchwebservices.com
All computers are capable of creating digital content, but it is important to distinguish multimedia computing from standard computing. Most of us using a computer do average or standard activities such as search, read, write, calculate or enter data. K-12 Students are no different, but unlike most adults in a typical office they also need desktop or laptop computers with the software and processing power to create multimedia content. Do people in an accounting office podcast? Probably not, but many students now podcast and that is often the misconception many adults have about education and student computing in this twenty-first century. A typical 4th - 12th grade classroom actually needs access to more powerful computers and software than a typical business office to produce original pieces of work.
Many adults as digital immigrants, have never had the experience either in school or at work to create multimedia content albeit, "The PowerPoint." For our digital native students, learning to use tools that create multimedia content will be part of 21st century literacy skills and is in fact what many are doing already with their home computers. For teachers, it is essential that they have a multimedia laptop as their teacher computer. Teachers need a mobile computer for working at school and home and that same laptop needs to be a multimedia computer for creating a variety of content. Ultimately, it would make sense that the teacher's computer would have virtualization abilities to use multiple operating systems Linux, Macintosh and/or Windows.
In SDUSD, with current student to computer ratios at 6 to 1 in including new construction schools, it makes sense in the short-term to purchase higher priced multimedia laptops and desktops. Why? Well, if students are only going to touch a computer once or twice a week at school you better have a computer that can do it all, from lower level writing up to higher order multimedia projects. Also, if school funding for technology continues at the current rate, this is often a school's only chance to get a bunch of new computers once every five years or so. However, this model will hopefully be changing as early as the fall semester of 2007. If pilot testing for the Linux laptop and thin-client desktop solutions go well, schools will have more options to then purchase an effective balance of mobile, mult-user and multimedia computers.
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