Does it really make a difference?
Do students really want to come to school?
Do teachers teach differently?
Are students excited about learning?
Does it help to instill the love of life-long learning?
Does discipline go down?
Do test scores and attendance go up?
The answer to ALL of the above is YES!
Nationally known educational futurist, Alan November, says that adults living in the information age are "digital immigrants" and their children are "first generation; they live in both worlds." Embracing this truth, Sedgwick High School embarked on a new frontier in educational change and student preparation for the real world. Since September 2002, every sophomore, junior, and senior has the opportunity to rent a wireless Apple laptop for the entire school year.
"We wanted to put technology in the hands of our students, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and a wireless Apple iBook made the most sense. Back in 2002 we started out with iBooks and when Apple created the MacBook put those in the hands of our students," shares Rae Niles, Curriculum Director/Technology USD 439.
Little did this school know how the learning and educational culture would change for their students. This exhibit highlights the many successes experienced when "You Give a Kid a MacBook."
The term "iBook" and "MacBook" are both used throughout this exhibit. When the one-to-one laptop computer initiative began iBooks were the wireless mobile computers available from Apple, now MacBooks are the standard computer for Sedgwick High School.
Epilogue
Over 1,000 educators from over 200 schools nationwide have traveled to see and hear first-hand how the technology is impacting how students learn and teachers teach.
Click the photo on the right to listen to a brief follow-up podcast to hear how things are going in this one-to-one MacBook computer initiative nearly six years later!
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First published on Jul 05, 2006. Content last updated on Jan 24, 2008.
