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Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Sharee Merriam receives her brand-new computer through FUHSD's computer program. The district's goal is to give every student access to a laptop by 2004.
Teachers catch up to tech-savvy students
By Kelly Wilkinson
Christmas came early this year for some teachers at Homestead and Monta Vista high schools. In fact, it came last Wednesday at a banquet room at Compaq Computers as 35 teachers opened boxes containing brand-new laptop computers.
"I can't think of a better way to get back to work than this," Joe Hamilton said, superintendent of Fremont Union High School District. "We have a vision that in five to six years, every student in this district will have a laptop in their hands and it will be looked at as just as normal as having a binder."
The 35 teachers who volunteered to participate in the "Open the Box Day" ceremony are the first wave of the pilot laptop program's implementation. The district's extended goal is to have a laptop for every teacher and student by 2004.
The program is sponsored by Compaq and Microsoft, which provided the district with computers and hardware at a discount.
"Our students are more advanced than we think they are," Hamilton told the teachers. "The challenge is to take education and thrust it into an age that will fit the age that our students are in."
Recognizing that many students are more tech-savvy than their teachers, this part of the program equips teachers with the computers, software and instruction that will teach them how to introduce computers into the classroom.
"I volunteered for this because I'm a doofus about technology," said Sharee Merriam, who teaches theater arts and English to all grades at Homestead High School. "And I'd like not to be and this is an opportunity to become un-doofussed."
Michael Isbutt, director of instructional technology for the district, said the next phase will include Cupertino, Fremont, and Lynbrook high school teachers, then extend laptop accessibility to students. He said the goal is to have the students get computers within one year after the teachers have received theirs.
Hamilton said he recognizes some of the program's idealism, since the district is unable to require any instructional materials of their students that the district does not pay for. And with laptops running $1800 after the discount, the ideal may be more difficult to realize for some families.
"This is not a simple matter," Hamilton said. In cases where families are unable to pay or have more than one child who would need a laptop, Hamilton said, the district's foundation is looking into providing assistance for some families or stretching payments out over a longer period of time.
But Hamilton said that once the program is realized, the district would be addressing an equity issue that it has not had to confront in the past--namely that some students have the means to use computers outside of the classroom and others do not.
"This is the beginning of the fulfillment of a dream," Hamilton said. "It'll be an empty dream if teachers and parents in this community don't work at making this a success. But it will make life in our community far different and far better."
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
