Thursday - 1:1 Anywhere Anytime Learning (Niles)

This was run by Niles Township (Guy Ballard, Phil Lacy, and Marcelo Sanz).  It was a presentation as to how they've implemented a districtwide 1:1 roll out for the past 2 years (incoming freshmen each year are receiving devices).  I found them to be very professional as well as informative as to how they went about their decisions.

For Professional Development, they had the following:

• For Teachers
• 3 levels of in-district classes that teachers can get credit on
• access to professional workshops and conferences
• the district will host a technology conference (to aid in bullet#2)
• a teacher computer lab for a Professional Development Center
• For Students
• Tech support and training available for students
• Community service credit for student techs
• Dedicated Technical Support for program (2 per school)

Hardware & Printing

• Purchased devices for students, teachers, tech support, check-outs
• Developed a quick check-out system to quickly distribute hundreds of devices
• Went with Netbooks.  Cost is currently $325 with a 3 year warranty.
• This was chosen based upon cost as well as durability
• Thee netbook itself is researched and revisited annually to purchase the best choice each year
• Use open source operating sytem (linux based) and are going to use Ubermix next year. Also use freeware for word processing and similar apps.
• Encourage students to save everything to cloud and if there are technical issues, netbooks are reset to "factory settings" based upon school image.
• Students are given ownership of the device once it is given to them.
• Students can add any personal software including operating system they want. (if problem, district just resets to image.
• Cost of device should offset cost of books and photocopying over time and is meant to be part of registration fees.
• 10% replace rule holds true for them.
• When ordering devices, give time to manufacture as bulk purchases will require extra time to arrive.
• Niles considers this a BYOD model where the district buys the students their 1st device.
• Printing is discouraged and printers are purposefully scarce.
• Student Handbook is no longer printed in Niles. Digital only.

Wireless and Applications

• Niles currently has 260 MB pipe and will be purchasing an additional 100 for next year. (They have 2500 netbooks in circulation this year.)
• Niles installed charging stations within the building for students to access.
• Wireless coverage is a constant work in progress.  Capacity and Density need monitoring and adjustment.
• Currently using a firewall (Palo Alto) that prioritizes applications so that you can filter based upon that instead of port traffic.
• Authentication is currently disabled because it choked the system.  They would see 800 kids disappear from the network at the end of a period and then all attempt to jump back onto the network after the passing period.  Authentication could not handle it.
• District uses Google Apps and through their educational service, they can archive data.