2007+Laptop+Statement+for+handbook

LAPTOP PROGRAM

Advances in communications technology are dramatically transforming the sharing of information. Citizens of the 21st Century live in a global community that is increasingly interconnected. As an educational institution, Ensworth High School has the responsibility to prepare its students to participate in this new world community and to serve as leaders for using the power and potential of technology to bind us all together more closely.

The best way to teach students how to succeed in the world’s new media environment is to build technology into the fabric of school life and to immerse students in it. To this end, all faculty and students are equipped with wireless laptop computers enabling their interconnectivity to each other, to school resources, and to the internet at any time and in any location. Both at school and at home, each community member has a computer dedicated to his or her own use rather than having to seek intermittent access to shared equipment.

The norm for school communication is electronic rather than paper. Common hardware, software, and licensing streamline maintenance and operational continuity and permit the entire community to share assignments, educational resources, work products, and status reports online. Students are be able to check and submit assignments electronically, as well as access their schedules and grades. As course materials become increasingly available online or on CD, students will be able to utilize quick searching and resource linking without toting around numerous standard textbooks.

Laptops are the primary tool for writing, researching, and interfacing with laboratory and mathematical instrumentation. In addition to using laptops for individual writing and small group collaboration, instructors are able to extend discussion beyond the walls of the classrooms by managing sites for continuing conversations and tutorials. Furthermore, students are able to organize and save their work in network portfolios and share it publicly as desired.

This immersive environment helps students learn not only how to use technology but also how not to use it. Because the technology is ubiquitous, issues of copyright, privacy, and appropriate use can be addressed in the context of our entire curricular program rather than sequestered as separate subjects in computer classes. In fact, our wireless network enables the entire campus of Ensworth High School to serve as the classroom for this endeavor.

Facility with technology also provides opportunities for enhancement of the school curriculum. Instructors are encouraged to employ the ever-improving tools of technology whenever they would help to effectuate curricular goals. This does not mean that instructors are pressured to inject technology into the curriculum for its own sake, nor that they should create new lessons simply as vehicles for employing new technology, but that they are free to avail themselves of the benefits that new technology might offer.

Technology is evolving at a startling pace. The original development of computers for speedier processing ultimately led to a world-wide web that has revolutionized our world. By giving students a strong foundation in the technology of today, Ensworth High School is equipping them to be the leaders in using or even creating the technology for the future.