Every fifth- and sixth-grader in the Shoreline School District — about 1300 students — will get their own laptop computer for school use this fall. The computers will be used at school but not taken home.
The Shoreline School Board approved the district’s request to spend about $2.5 million in capital fund money — excluding tax — on the laptops.
The vote was unanimous, after a short discussion kicked off by board member David Wilson.
“As I talk with constituents, trying to buy a head of lettuce at QFC, people say, ‘We don’t understand the program. We feel the district needs a plan, needs grade level expectations so you can put a finger on: We got from here to here,” Wilson said.
He repeatedly hears the question: “We’re buying the wrenches, what are we doing with them?”, he said.
Jim Golubich, director of instructional technology for the district, said that study groups of teachers would meet regularly about the laptops this year to discuss goals and needs.
Golubich agreed to hold the meetings after talks with Pat Valle, co-president of the Shoreline Education Association, or SEA, this spring after the results of a secondary laptop survey came out.
The survey showed that while some teachers used the laptops frequently, others did not, Golubich said. Several of those surveyed also questioned the goals of the laptop program.
“We are not in the business of inventing (technology goals) from scratch,” Golubich said at the board meeting.
The district, like others, uses the state’s standards for technology, which come from the International Society for Technology in Education, he said.
The state goals are divided into three tiers — generally speaking: beginner, middle and advanced — and, in part, the district’s goals are to move to Tier 3, Golubich said.
At Tier 3, computers are a central means of delivering instruction and are heavily used by students and teachers for all aspects of school life. Students also learn more advanced computer skills.
“That said,” Golubich concluded, “do I think it’s adequate to cover the nature of what we’re doing here? No.”
The district needs to be more assertive and aggressive in that area, he said.
Wilson expressed satisfaction with the response and said the district needed to communicate that to its constituents.
“I think one thing we don’t communicate is the good things we’re doing,” he said.
Board member Dan Mann said he supported the program.
“I hear you saying we’re learning from mistakes we’ve made and interacting with people in the classroom,” he said.
“For all the aches and pains, it’s a messy process but it’s very exciting,” said board member Debi Ehrlichman.
“Tier 3 is pretty exciting stuff,” Golubich said in closing.
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