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Mooresville schools' laptop initiative draws interest from near and far
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Published: February 4, 2009
Updated: 02/04/2009 08:45 am
As the Mooresville Graded School District embarks upon the second semester of its digital conversion, visitors from across the country are coming to town to see the district's progress and learn a bit more about the program's implementation.
"The thing that I think sets us apart is this isn't a one-to-one project; it's a digital conversion," said Director of Technology Scott Smith. "It involves every area, not just putting a laptop in the kids' hands. That's just one piece of it."
And it is those various components of the digital conversion, from its leadership and success to the technical aspects and educational benefits, that the several districts descending on the MGSD – which include Asheville City Schools, the Rowan-Salisbury School System and Oregon's Salem-Keizer Public Schools – are looking at and learning from.
"Mooresville High School and the district came highly recommended as people who did an extraordinary job of planning and implementing one-to-one initiatives," said Lois Clement, director of instructional technology from Asheville City Schools. She and several district officials visited MHS on Monday.
With Asheville "transitioning to more active learning," that district is beginning its own one-to-one laptop initiative at the high school level, said Clement. As that project develops, Clement said a relationship with the MGSD will allow for the exchange of ideas and information between districts about what works and what doesn't when placing a computer in the hands of each student.
"We were real impressed with Mooresville in terms of how they manage support," she said Monday, noting how grateful her district was for the candid discussions about the MGSD's digital conversion.
"We hope that the relationship will continue and that the teachers themselves can share what they have found to work in their specific content areas," she added.
For other school systems, such as Providence Day School in Charlotte, officials visited the MGSD for insight into the technology being used and the technical aspects of the project.
"We aren't doing a one-to-one initiative right now. We mainly use laptop carts and are using laptops in the classroom," said William Stockdale, assistant director of technology and network administrator for the Charlotte system.
He and another school official also toured MHS on Monday, speaking with school and district officials about the technology as a learning instrument.
"We're on the technical side of it so that's what we were looking at," Stockdale said Monday, adding that "there were a lot of pieces we brought back" about what occurs behind the scenes.
"They had a well thought out plan and it looks like it's been initiated very well," he noted. "I think that the kids, they are seeing a great educational benefit from having them in the classroom just from some of the comments the teachers had made."
Steven Hoffert, assistant director of technology and information services for Salem-Keizer Public Schools in Oregon, said following his visit to Mooresville that "the key for these kinds of programs is integrating the instruction," which the MGSD has been able to do.
"I thought the school district handled it really well," he said, adding that the extensive staff training and tools provided to teachers allowed Mooresville's one-to-one initiative to begin with the instruction side.
Hoffert and one other Salem-Keizer official made a one-day stop in Mooresville in January following a few days of other meetings in North Carolina.
And although his district is not implementing a laptop initiative, Hoffert said they are trying to integrate more technology into the educational environment.
"It was a top down instructional side approach (in the MGSD), which is where I always thought it should come from," he added, noting several other "nuggets of knowledge" that were gained from the visit, such as increased technology in the classrooms decreasing the need for computer labs, which could help ease overcrowding.
Taking nearly a dozen pages of notes in the four hours Hoffert and his colleague spent with MGSD officials, he said he now has a better picture of what it really means to incorporate more technology into instruction.
"We're pretty far behind this curve," he said. "But we do know that we want to improve our instruction and that we're actually working towards that end."
Also in January, the MGSD received a corporate visit from Apple officials, which, said Smith, should "spawn more visits" by the company.
"This isn't a technology project; it's a curriculum project," the director noted. "The emphasis is not technology for technology's sake. It's to help students get ready for the 21st century, getting kids ready for the future."
And these visits – with more expected in the future – are putting the MGSD on a platform as an example of a successful digital conversion initiative, said Smith.
"I think we look good," he added. "And the feedback we're getting from other folks, and especially Apple folks, saying this is one of the smoothest deployments they've ever seen. Everything is going smoothly."
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