This file of interesting e-mail notes has been pulled together from ISED listserv. The data is essentially public since the archives are posted on the web. For info on ISED-L see http://www.milton.edu/ISED-L
Listserv compilation 2000-2001 re laptops and wireless; So much interesting stuff has come across the ISED listserv over the past year that anyone who reads this compilation cannot help but come away with a feeling that wireless computers and laptops per student is most likely the way we will find ourselves and our schools before too long!
Steve Bergen (bergen@nobles.edu), March 2001
(1)
Wednesday, February 28, 2001 6:01:30 PM
looking for best pedagogical practices
elaine.christensen@LAKESIDESCHOOL.ORG
All our students will have laptops next year. I am looking for a set of
"Best Practices" for teachers as they design curricula for technology
classes, a kind of checklist of things to do or things to consider
before they actually present the assignments to a class. Does anyone
have anything like this?
Elaine Christensen
Assistant Director of Upper School
Lakeside School
Seattle, Washington 98125
(2)
Tuesday, February 20, 2001 4:03:12 PM
laptops at greensboro
shanawald@GREENSBORODAY.ORG
There is a mailing list that is supported by a for-profit company called
Intouch with Learning. Many schools with current laptop programs
participate with the list.
http://www.intouchlearning.com/community/lists.htm
In addition, there will be a meeting in Philadelphia on March 23-24 (and
one in Bellevue Feb 23) for schools currently using or considering using
laptops. You can find out more at www.beyondthesummit.org
As others have said, I would be happy to discuss the first couple of years
of our laptop program with anyone. We stepped in rather slowly, leasing
laptops for faculty, along with two mobile carts of laptops for a full
year prior to having the students purchase laptops. We recommend, rather
than require a certain model of laptop. We do require a specific set of
software. We have about 12 students who purchased other models (including
one Powerbook). Most of them have not caused or had any real problems --
their parents work in technology and support their own child's laptop and
they readily purchased the required software and brought the laptop in
over the summer to have the network software installed (about 10 minutes
per laptop). On the other hand, two students have had significant issues
and required way too much of our time. However, I think those parents
would have used up the time in some way no matter what laptop they had.
We spend the time on their bargain-box laptops because we want their kids
to have the best opportunity to learn. Their experiences have gotten
around though, and I think that the parent community in general is of the
opinion that unless you have access to resources on your own, it is best
to get the school's selected laptop.
Sarah Hanawald
Technology/Laptop Program Coordinator
Greensboro Day School
Greensboro, NC 27455
shanawald@greensboroday.org
(3)
Wednesday, February 14, 2001 1:56:17 PM
jwingate@LOVETT.ORG
Re: Wireless Networks at Lovett School
At The Lovett School in Atlanta we are in our second year of
wireless operation with over 80 teacher/administrator laptops.
We quietly installed a few airports to test our laptop wireless
"landings" and were very pleased with the results. We then
spread 20 Airports around the campus and are now enjoying the
wireless freedom of roaming around the campus and "staying
connected".
While most computers for student use are still connected via
ethernet, airport cards are beginning to be used in these as
well (particularly laptops) so that students can use the
computers in classrooms that do not have accessible ethernet
connections (such as the chemistry lab).
We use Apple Airport Base Stations and school owned iBooks for
our lower, middle and upper school faculty and have been very
happy with the simple installation, configuration and
maintenance of all of the hardware. So far - "Setit and Forget
it" has been our experience.
James Wingate, Technology Coordinator -
The Lovett School, Atlanta
jwingate@lovett.org
(4)
Saturday, February 10, 2001 11:13:42 PM
wireless at harbor day school, ca
jrobb@HARBORDAY.ORG
I added a wireless component to our network last summer and have been quite
pleased with the results. Six Apple Airport bases stations are positioned
throughout the school and all of the new faculty machines (30) are wireless.
The majority of these are iBooks. Setup was simple and the performance
excellent. We have never really tested the limits of a single airport because
the computers are spread out throughout our buildings. The most that we have
had on a single airport was 10 simultaneous users / with no degradation of
service. We are accessing Internet, printers and file sharing.
Jeanne Robb
Director of Technology
Harbor Day School, CA
jrobb@harborday.org
(5)
Saturday, February 10, 2001 7:56:44 PM
health issue? wireless vs flourescent?
nyergler@CANTERBURYSCHOOL.ORG
An article on the subject ran in the last issue of Independent School
magazine (the one with Sexuality as the cover story). Basic conclusion: the
fields generated by flourescent lighting is stronger and more pervasive than those from wireless networks.
Nathan R. Yergler
(6)
Saturday, February 10, 2001 8:19:34 PM
health issue? wireless vs flourescent?
jheynder@LOWELLSCHOOL.ORG
The health and safety issue was brought up at a Wireless Network panel
discussion I attended last year at Holton Arms. Vendors and an official
from the FCC were on the panel. If my notes are correct, they said that
analog cell phones are allowed by law to "leak" up to 600 milliwatts of
power, while wireless network cards release only 30 milliwatts. A microwave
oven can legally leak a watt of power. The FCC official appeared to confirm
this, and noted that the risk was greatest when these sources were close to
the head, diminishing rapidly with even a few feet of separation. Overall,
it sounded like they were much more concerned about putting cell phones to
their heads or even standing by a microwave as it warms their coffee.
I summarized much of the Wireless Networking Panel discussion in a
handout for an AIMS Technology Retreat Session:
http://www.lowellschool.org/tech/wireless/
Jim Heynderickx
Lowell School
jheynder@lowellschool.org
(7)
Saturday, February 10, 2001 1:07:01 PM
beware of microwaves!
kchun@CUSHING.ORG
Also be aware that many appliances can wreak havoc with wireless
systems, especially if they are located near the access points. A 2.4
Ghz phone or "noisy" microwave can disrupt and degrade signals
significantly. Has anyone else had issues with these and other devices
interfering with wireless networks?
Kendall Chun
Director of Technology
Cushing Academy
(8)
wireless at Canterbury School, CT
Rob Roffe, rroffe@CBURY.ORG writes:
We installed a wireless network in 10 of our campus buildings last
summer (7 dorms, 3 academic buildings), and in doing so learned the
following...
* Do a wireless survey before you buy all the equipment. Buy or borrow
two to four units and move them around in each building to identify the
optimal placement for getting a good signal to rooms that need wireless
coverage. After doing your survey you should know exactly how many units
to buy and can avoid all the "Why isn't my room on the wireless
network?"
questions.
* Wireless units need power. This can be a huge problem if you plan on
putting a wireless unit in a public, unsecured area. To avoid having to
install power outlets in strange locations, buy a product that supports
power over CAT-5. This means that you can plug the unit in at a secure
location (such as the wiring closet) and make use of the extra pairs in
your ethernet cable to deliver both power and a network connection to
the
unit in one cable. As bizarre as this sounds, it works, it's safe, and
saves you a lot of time, money and hassle. Just make sure that the
person
who terminates and installs the cable knows what they are doing...
* Get a product that comes with good management software. Being able
to
manage all your wireless units from a remote computer will be extremely
useful, especially if your wireless network is the primary means of
network access for boarding students. Good management software should
allow you filter by protocol, and by MAC address (as well as doing many
other things...). Being able to filter by MAC address comes in handy if
you need to cut a student off for whatever reason. The MAC address of a
wireless card is a unique serial number that identifies that card.
* If you go with the power over CAT-5 scenario, invest in some cheap
clock timers and plug your wireless units into the clock timer... This
allows you to shut down and start up the wireless network at certain
times. This comes in handy in a boarding school environment since it
allows you to shut the network down in the evening.
We bought our wireless system from Cabletron (now Enterasys) and have
been
extremely happy with it. I would strongly recommend looking at their
products. We haven't had problems getting wireless cards from any other
manufacturers to work with their base stations, and their wireless cards
work with Windows 3.1/95/98/NT/2000/me/CE, DOS, MacOS, and even
Linux(!).
For more info:
http://www.enterasys.com/roamabout/
Rob Roffe
Academic Technology Coordinator
Canterbury School
New Milford, CT
rroffe@cbury.org
(9)
wireless in NC
Saturday, February 10, 2001 1:00:44 PM
epaynter@GREENSBORODAY.ORG
We are using Cisco wireless systems to connect about 300 laptops at our
school. We will be nearly doubling that number this year. The Cisco
systems connect to the network at 100mbs and connect to the laptops at
11mbs. The system works well and we have had no major problems since the
initial configuration. One initial problem was learning by trial and
error to stagger the channels on individual access nodes in order to
distribute the load equally over the various zones...we also played with
the transmitter's broadcast field strength to optimize the work load.
Cisco's web management software makes it easy to reconfigure their
equipment using a web browser.
Ed Paynter
Manager of Information Systems
Greensboro Day School
Greensboro, North Carolina
(10)
Friday, February 9, 2001 5:44:38 PM
wireless at branson
brad_engstran@BRANSON.ORG
We've been running a wireless net all year, total of about 18 Airports. No
war stories, its all worked as advertised. We'll be looking into more
powerful solutions this summer though, our campus is a bit sprawling and
we'd love to have a wireless "cloud" over the whole campus. Airports range
may end up too limiting. But they work very well and are very straight
forward to set up.
Brad Engstrand
The Branson School
brad_engstrand@branson.org
(11)
Friday, February 9, 2001 9:55:33 PM
wireless at st. andrew’s in delaware
phoopes@STANDREWS-DE.ORG
We've been using Wireless for a while all over our school. Apple's Airport
is the best and easiest to configure, and it works for both Macs and PC's.
We're expanding our wireless coverage this summer for more math and
science classrooms.
Peter Hoopes
Director of Technology
St. Andrew's School
phoopes@standrews-de.org
(12)
Monday, February 12, 2001 6:24:01 PM
wireless in California
Alneff@AOL.COM
We use Airport Bay Stations w/ Roamabout® wirelss cards in G-3 Powerbooks. I heard from Hoover Chan the Bay Area's Independent Schools' wireless guru that
Cisco Airnet is a good choice for wireless bridges. The only problem we have
had with wireless networks and laptops is that when they got to sleep they
lose their network connection.
Excuse me, there is one other problem. Some laptops were freezing when
students signed on to the fileserver. This problem was rectified by turning
off the submenus and setting the recently used items to O in the Apple menu
items control panel.
Angela Neff :) (:
Technology Director
St. Matthew's Episcopal Day School
San Mateo, California 94401
E-MAIL: neffa@stmatthewsonline.org
(13)
wireless in New York City
SWilder@ALLEN-STEVENSON.ORG
We have had a wireless network in place for 2 years and we love it. 4 hubs cover three contiguous buildings and have been able to handle all traffic thus far. we have given each faculty member an ibook with wireless access and we have several sets of laptops available (located on 3 different floors) for classroom use which are checked out for classes as needed.
You do need to test carefully to find the optimum locations for the hubs and to ensure that you have no dead spots.
Stephen Wilder
Business Manager
Allen-Stevenson School
New York, NY 10021
swilder@allen-stevenson.org
(14)
Sunday, February 11, 2001 7:51:17 PM
health issues? wireless radiation?
epaynter@GREENSBORODAY.ORG
Basic conclusion: the
fields generated by flourescent lighting is stronger and more pervasive
than those from wireless networks.
We had an environmental health service do some testing prior to adopting
wireless on a large scale (we knew this was redundant since many
documented tests have already been done, but wanted some firsthand
information for our parents.) Our testing with radiation field strength
meters sort of confirmed the above results.... many of the newer (solid
state ballast) florescent lights would peg the meter at 3 feet when set to
sensitivity levels capable of reading wireless card output and in the same
bandwidth. We tested several sources and found that even 20 wireless
units while operating in unrealistically concentrated close proximity had
lower readings than a single cell phone and the cell phone was still much
lower than a florescent light fixture at 3 feet. Our purpose was not to
show that the units did not have a radiation hazard associated with them,
but just that it was much less than other commonly accepted sources
already in use.
The single most powerful radiation source we tested was an FRS (Family
Radio Service) radio unit... these things are like a cross between a CB
(Citizen's Band) and a cell phone, used for up to 2 mile communication
while traveling in separate cars, camping, etc. It would peg the scale at
cell phone sensitivity levels.
It was mounted on my motorcycle helmet at the time.
I still use it, but only when necessary now.
Ed Paynter
Manager of Information Systems
Greensboro Day School
Greensboro, North Carolina
(15)
Sunday, February 11, 2001 11:12:25 AM
wireless in California
gfeldmeth@EARTHLINK.NET
At Polytechnic School in Pasadena, California we have installed 80
wireless laptops (Toshiba Satellites and Apple iBooks) in a variety of
situations:
* 6 in each of our lower school (grades 2-5) classrooms to support
instruction. They take up very little room, can be used anywhere inside
or outside the classroom, and don't require the entire class to go to
the computer lab to work on an activity
* 8 of our administrators now have laptops with wireless connection,
allowing them to roam from room to room or building to building
* a set of 18 on a cart that can be rolled from room to room or set up
for writing exams in any classroom
* several of our science teachers now use laptops as their desktop
machines and thus can take their computer from their office to their
classroom, etc.
* a set of 4 in our upper school library that students can check out
and use anywhere in the library for research or papers.
We have found that the range of the Airport base stations varies greatly
in terms of the type of construction used for our buildings. We have
also begun testing a Linksys product that appears to have greater range.
The simplicity of installing the networks and their ease of maintenance
is amazing. The advantage of the iBooks is the internal location of the
wireless cards. The Toshibas require an external card inserted in the
slot that is tempting for little hands to remove, but the Windows laptop
world is moving towards internal cards as well.
In sum, the project has been successful and I expect we will expand it
in the future.
Greg Feldmeth
Polytechnic School
Pasadena, California
(16)
Monday, February 5, 2001 10:06:13 AM
wireless slideshow on line
jheynder@LOWELLSCHOOL.ORG
For those who are interested, I just posted the slide show from an
AIMSTech workshop I presented called "Wireless iBooks in Action." AIMSTech
workshops are funded by the Association of Independent Maryland Schools
(AIMS). The workshop was a review of the pros and cons of our first two
years of using wireless iBooks with all fifth and sixth grade students at
Lowell School. The slide show is located at
http://www.lowellschool.org/tech/ibooks
One correction: the latest iBooks have composite video out for
connection to TVs and projectors. The 40 iBooks we have do not have video
out capability.
Overall, we're happy with the program so far, and we plan to have more
than 60 iBooks in use by students and teachers next year.
Jim Heynderickx
Technology Coordinator, Lowell School
jheynder@lowellschool.org
(17)
Sunday, February 4, 2001 1:34:13 PM
wireless in Michigan
rknoll@SUMMERS-KNOLL.ORG
Here is my personal $0.02 worth of lap top expierence. I'm the technology teacher at a small elementary school in Ann Arbor, MI. For the past 2 years I've used my iBook constantly. I carry it almost
everywhere. When done with it I fold it up and put it in a soft-sided
briefcase and toss it in the back of my station wagon with the dog.
I've left it to freeze in the car (accidental), the cats sleep on the
keyboard till the battery goes (it's warm). So far it has survived my
use. I have decided not to use a padded case for it or to be to kind
to it to see how sturdy it is. So far - I'm impressed with the
reliability of it.
I use the iBook for desk top publishing - mostly word processing,
email, web access and photograph processing.
I used the old eMate for a year or so, and found it ok but unreliable.
My experience with K-5 kids is that the computer does not do much
good till they can type faster than write, and read to learn.
If you want to use laptops with students, make sure they can take a
fair amount of physical abuse. I've taken care of local area networks
long enough to know the value of having every computer the same:
hardware and software. Makes for easier repair and trouble shooting.
Ruth Knoll
Technology Coordinator
Summers-Knoll School
www.summers-knoll.org
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
(18) www.harker.org, the Harker School, in San Jose California .. theme? faculty use of the web
Check out particularly the upper school faculty pages,
starting at http://www.harker.org/faculty/upperschool/faculty.html.
Harker's curriculum is highly webcentric, with all faculty on line
and faculty in several departments using the network, web resources,
and other technology extensively. Math and science are using the net
to post assignments and projects, course resources, and student work.
The humanities are using the net for web-based dialogue and
discussion, group writing, as well as more traditional research, etc.
Joanne Mason, Director of Math Studies
joannem@harker.org
http://www.harker.org
http://www.harker.org/users/hs/joannem
(19) park school in Mass .. TomSmith
theme? faculty use of the web
I suggest you take a look at our "JUMP!" site.
http://www.parkschool.org/jump/index.html
This is a "zero training" solution for helping teachers to suggest
specific web sites to support their curriculum. Using a back-end Filemaker
database, teachers suggest specific web sites, then students (or any one)
go to their teacher's "Jump site" as a starting point for their school
work. We found it to be a better solution for teachers who want to make
web pages, but don't have the time to learn even the simplest web page
layout programs (like Home Page). We have other examples on our web site, but nothing particularly
impressive yet. Some of this is due to the restrictions we have placed on
the public site... that no student names or images can be viewable. So we
have segmented our site so that kids and teachers can post anything they
want (within the guidelines of our AUP, of course). We hope that will
spawn some interesting work by teachers and students.
(20) Choate in CT
faculty training theme
theme of faculty training (similar to our personal trainer program at Nobles)
There are as many approaches as there are schools. The effectiveness of
these approaches are not consistent from one school to another. I can tell
you what we are doing at Choate, but can't guarantee that it can be
replicated elsewhere.We looked at the traditional "bootcamp" model where faculty all engage in
similar learning activities together over some period of time, usually a
week. Our faculty told us that they did not feel that such an approach
would be beneficial for them because it was not contextual to their goals
in the classroom. With some generous funding from a Trustee, we were able
to create a "project-based " system whereby each faculty member devises a
classroom-based technology project that they would like to incorporate
into their curriculum. We assign faculty mentors to groups of three or
four faculty who are using a common platform and have a similar emphasis
(it turns out that academic department was not a distinguishing factor).
In these sessions, which range from 60 to 120 hours per faculty member
(they are compensated for their time), all faculty learn some common
skills. It is up to the mentor to weave them in "seamlessly." At minimum,
each faculty member must use Powerpoint to present their project when it
is completed. After project completion, the faculty member must introduce
the project into their classroom and be prepared to evaluate its outcome.
We are looking for outcomes that represent an enhancement of the teaching
and learning process rather than a substitution for something they were
doing before. Our agreement is that our faculty may conclude, in
consultation with their department head, that technology is not enhancing
their teaching and learning process, and we respect that decision because
it is an informed decision (or they may decide to pursue a second project
through a curriculum development grant now that they know what doesn't work).
Whle the program is in its early stages (20 faculty completed), we have
about a 60% adoption rate in the classroom post project. Using the
bootcamp approach, we had less than a 25% adoption rate. Because this
model is extremely labor intensive, we depend on some faculty who have
completed the project to join the ranks of the mentors. The collegiality
of this process is a motivating factor.
(21)
OES: Oregon Episcopal School
re theme of wireless
Oregon Episcopal School has used simple AlphaSmart laptops with the
elementary children for a number of years, probably 5 years. There is one
class set for the three classes in grades 1, another for grade 2, and then
every 3rd-5th grader gets one to use all year long. Keyboarding skills are
taught/reviewed each year using the Herzog method, by grade three the
students do a lot of writing on them.
From now on: With the advent of wireless networking at reasonable speeds and prices, we
have implemented wireless networking in parts of the school and will be
expanding this. This opens wonderful possibilities to use laptops with
wireless nics in them. Lower School, Middle School, and Upper School have
plans to move in this direction with full fledged notebook computers, both
Mac and PC. We have a few wireless laptops and probably 35 wireless deskops,
and the wireless concept works great.
Lou Paff, Oregon Episcopal School
(22)
SUFFIELD
re theme of required laptops
Suffield Academy has had laptops at our school since 1993. Sure... we've
hit some roadblocks AND we know we have lots of work still to do; however,
we are happy with the integration of technology into our community and
would do it again in a second! Call if you want to discuss in detail.
You can also read about our story, as well as others in "Oh What a Web We Weave":
Dean Ellerton, dean@sufieldacademy.org
Director of Technology, Suffield Academy
(23)
EPISCOPAL VA SCHOOLS
re theme of required laptops
I have experience at two Episcopal High Schools (one day, one boarding) that both require laptops. We are now [at the boarding school] considering requiring a standard model each year so we can avoid renegade computers. We found the "off-plan" models give us the most headaches with configuring the network, repairing, and providing seamless support with loaners and warranties. We also are starting a new lease program for our faculty with IBM [who really knows schools well] through a terrific reseller we found in the DC area.
I am happy to talk to anyone who calls or emails with specific questions.
Albert L. Throckmorton, Director of Curriculum Technology
Episcopal High School, 1200 North Quaker Lane, Alexandria, VA 22302-3004
(24) PEDDIE SCHOOL .. NJ
re theme of required laptops
The Peddie School is in its third year of 100% required laptops. We are a
grade 8 - 12 school of 500 students, with 300 boarders, and a fairly
lengthy history of commitment to technology starting with a campus network
in 1993 and a pilot laptop program starting in 1994. There is additional
information on our Web site.
If laptops become an integral part of the learning and curriculum, then
students have to have a laptop every day that performs the educational work
required. When a student is issued a Peddie laptop, we know (1) that it
has all the necessary software, (2) that we can support it so that it stay
running (and we commit to this), and (3) that we will take care of repairs
and issue loaners immediately should something go wrong.
No other laptop brought to campus will satisfy this.
Now, we have an extra lever in that in Peddie's case all laptops are owned
by the school and supplied to the student as part of tuition. Still, some
families will complain that they want their kid to have a better (cooler,
jazzier, etc.) laptop. I tell them: Sure! - but we are going to issue one
of ours anyway, and we will only devote major support resources to the one
that we issue.
The point of the laptop is to help kids learn. This is not a function of
CPU speed or hard drive capacity or titanium casing, but a function of what
the laptop can do in the educational environment. In this regard, our 2.5
year old P233 does a much better job than some brand new CompUSA special
with all the trimmings.
Thankfully, we have had very few families who don't understand this point.--Tim
--Tim Corica tcorica@peddie.org http://www.peddie.org
(25)
NORTHFIELD
theme? required laptops
Northfield Mount Hermon School is a 9-PG school and we have 1,160 students
(@75% boarders) using required school notebook computers. We've just
transitioned from a student-owned to a school-owned program.
I'm happy to talk with anyone about our program and what we've learned.
Jon Shannon, Director of Information Technology
Northfield Mount Hermon School jon_shannon@nmhschool.org
(26)
MPA in MN
theme of IBOOKS for students and faculty
From: "Andy Charrier" andrew.charrier@mpa.pvt.k12.mn.us
We've pretty much done what you're thinking of doing. All of our Upper
School faculty (about 50 teachers) and students (240) have iBooks that they
keep with them at all times. We've created a wireless network that covers
the whole campus and came up with a way for them to global access to their
files. Here are some URLs for you:
We are hosting a conference in April focused only on laptop programs:
http://global.mpa.pvt.k12.mn.us/staff/acharrier/laptop_conference_brochure.pdf
I've put together a collection of links, some of which are related to this issue:
http://www.ikeepbookmarks.com/charrier
And here is the website that runs our program: http://global.mpa.pvt.k12.mn.us
My email is <charrier@mpa.pvt.k12.mn.us if you have more questions.
Andy Charrier.
(27)
Tuesday, December 19, 2000 3:43:08 PM
EDTECH@H-NET.MSU.EDU
edadmin@mail.h-net.msu.edu
From: "Andy Charrier" <andrew.charrier@mpa.pvt.k12.mn.us
We've pretty much done what you're thinking of doing. All of our Upper
School faculty (about 50 teachers) and students (240) have iBooks that they
keep with them at all times. We've created a wireless network that covers
the whole campus and came up with a way for them to global access to their
files. Here are some URLs for you:
We are hosting a conference in April focused only on laptop programs:
http://global.mpa.pvt.k12.mn.us/staff/acharrier/laptop_conference_brochure.p
df
I've put together a collection of links, some of which are related to this
issue:
http://www.ikeepbookmarks.com/charrier
And here is the website that runs our program:
http://global.mpa.pvt.k12.mn.us
My email is <charrier@mpa.pvt.k12.mn.us if you have more questions.
Andy Charrier.
EDTECH has changed addresses. The new list address is
EDTECH@H-NET.MSU.EDU. All subscription commands should be sent to
LISTSERV@H-NET.MSU.EDU.
(28)
Monday, December 18, 2000 5:51:11 PM
Ghshead@AOL.COM
Subject: Laptops
Over the past year or so I have read many emails about schools considering
going laptop. To anyone still pondering this important question (we are) I
recommend you read the November issue of Indpendent School Technology Letter.
It is devoted entirely to this issue. I found it very helpful.
Go to schooladmin.com for more information.
Scott Votey