Hawaii DOE seeks to grow laptop pilot program

At Mililani Mauka Elementary School, iPad-toting kindergarteners take turns videoing one another reading aloud to improve reading skills and pronunciation.

Students at Moanalua Middle School use MacBook Air laptops in every class at the paperless campus, from band to science.

And on Hawaii island, Keaau Elementary School students recently took students from Mexico City along on a virtual field trip into Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, live-streaming video of their hike into Kilauea Iki crater.

"Virtual field trips have opened up the world to our schools and our schools to the world," said Chad Keone Farias, complex-area superintendent for the nine schools in the Kau-Keaau-Pahoa complex on Hawaii island.

The schools are at the forefront of the Department of Education’s push to make learning more relevant and engaging for tech-savvy students by putting laptops or tablets in the hands of every public school student and teacher.

The department wants to expand its eight-school pilot program statewide and has made the initiative a top priority this legislative session. The DOE is seeking a $30.8 million investment over the next two years to create a pot of funding to help qualifying schools purchase devices.

If successful, the money could result in roughly 1 in 3 public school students having their own device to learn on.

But the project is expected to be a tough sell at the Legislature, where an initial $8 million for the small-scale pilot proved controversial, and subsequent funding requests for more devices have stalled the past two years.

The state’s budget director and lawmakers have warned that funding for new programs and services would be improbable this year. The DOE says it will move ahead either way with training for teachers and helping schools get the needed infrastructure in place.

"We have to be aware of the budget situation, but we also want to make sure that it’s not necessarily all about the devices — it’s about how schools will use them," said Stephanie Shipton, the department’s acting director of policy, innovation, planning and evaluation, who is overseeing the project.

DOE spokeswoman Donalyn Dela Cruz added that "if we don’t get our request, we won’t be able to support as many schools or as deeply; however, it will not stop us from moving forward."

Taking lessons learned from the pilot program, Shipton said the department has built a strategy to expand to schools that can demonstrate they are "ready, willing and able" to implement a so-called 1-to-1 device program, noting that more than 20 schools are "champing at the bit." Some are pursuing plans to buy their own devices using school funds.

The strategy involves hosting planning workshops and technology summits for interested schools and providing training for teachers, school administrators and technology staff. The department is also developing an application process for schools to tap into funding for network infrastructure improvements and to buy devices. Under the plan, schools would be able to apply for up to $500 per device.

"We learned that the most important thing is the preparation for teachers — the time for planning, the support for professional development, the opportunity to use the technology so that they’re comfortable before buying devices for students," state schools Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi told lawmakers at a budget briefing this month. "Getting the devices is really the last step in the process."

The 1-to-1 device pilot, launched in the 2013-14 school year, has supplied devices for students and teachers at eight schools on Oahu and Hawaii island, where educators say the program has improved teaching and learning.

Officials say more than 100 public school districts across the country have implemented such programs. (Hawaii is the only state with a single, statewide school district.)

"At the 1-to-1 schools, assignments aren’t just turned in — they’re uploaded, shared with classmates via the cloud, posted on a blog. Students are publishing their work, creating videos," said Farias, the Hawaii island complex-area superintendent. "And these are elementary kids."

Farias was the principal at Keaau Elementary School when the school rolled out its pilot program, which he credits for a host of benefits, including increased productivity and collaboration among teachers, gains on test scores and improved attendance.

He’s working with his principals on a plan to internally fund 1-to-1 programs using per-pupil funds at the complex’s seven schools that aren’t part of the legislatively funded pilot program.

"There’s no way to turn back. We can’t go back to classrooms where students are just looking at a textbook," he said. "We like to call it polyphonic learning, how you bring in information from all of your senses. The digital devices allow that."

For example, he said, students can use their laptops to virtually tie in with someone at Boston Harbor when learning about the Boston Tea Party in social studies class.

"It brings it to life. You can hear the seagulls. Students don’t want to just read a textbook," Farias said.

A survey of teachers at the eight pilot schools found most consider the devices "extremely/very effective" for creating assignments (94 percent), planning for instruction (93 percent), presenting lessons (92 percent) and creating integrated lessons (82 percent).

A survey of students at the pilot schools found that most maintain the devices make schoolwork more interesting (91 percent) and have improved the quality of their schoolwork (82 percent).

The DOE is starting to analyze academic data at the pilot schools to see whether the devices have affected students’ academic performance.

Officials say the program also is key to achieving the Common Core, a set of nationally crafted academic standards which lays out what students should know and be able to do in reading and math from kindergarten to grade 12. Hawaii is among about 40 states to adopt the standards.

A Common Core writing standard for fourth-graders, for example, expects: "With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others."

Another standard for 11th-graders calls for students to "make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning and evidence."

"With the Common Core, it’s even more essential that all students be able to have an opportunity to learn and master these skills, be exposed to technology," Shipton said. "And without providing them that experience in school, we think it’ll be very difficult to make sure that all kids have that chance."