Amanda Hach’s seventh-grade social studies class is visiting the library to start research on a history project, but her revved-up students can stay at their desks. Everything they need to start researching this day’s topic — “captains of industry” — is only a few clicks away on their Apple iBook laptops.
And since every one of Henrico County’s 11,400 middle school pupils has his or her own portable computer, Hach’s students at Pocahontas Middle School quickly get to work as she launches them on a search for names, dates and facts about America’s most successful business leaders.
“Go to the library home page,” says Hach, an energetic second-year instructor, “and go to online databases. Once you go there, look for the top row on the right, and look for Grolier Encyclopedia. That’s where you’ll type in ‘captain of industry.’ That’s where you start.”
As the eager students race to be the first to finish their projects, Hach explains why she wants them to go to Grolier rather than to that default position for most online searches — Google. “Instead of using Google or Wikipedia,” she explains, “I want to get them to a database they’ll understand.” Grolier is the right starting place, with entries written in language appropriate for the seventh graders.
The kids dive in to the work, excited about the final product they will produce: a “tombstone” (made out of poster board) that will include an epitaph and eulogy for their chosen Rockefeller, Carnegie or perhaps Bill Gates or Steve Jobs.
It is the perfect assignment before Halloween as the seventh graders have fun while tapping into an online database — something that has become commonplace in the more than seven years since Henrico County decided to lease laptop computers from Apple Computer, Inc. for all middle and high school students — one of the first such arrangements for a local school system in the United States. The $18.5 million initial investment was one of the largest single educational technology purchases in the country, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said at the time.
Since then, the county has chosen Dell as the laptop vendor for 15,600 high school students, but still uses Apple to provide iBooks for 11,400 middle school pupils. The county now spends about $8 million a year to keep the ambitious laptop program running.
“When every student and teacher has access to wirelessly networked mobile computing, learning reaches far beyond the classroom,” Jobs said in 2001.
“The students now are the generation of digital learners,” according to Henrico’s school superintendent at the time, Dr. Mark A. Edwards. “They will have access to a wealth of knowledge. This is the direction everyone will be going in the future.”
Edwards predicts the iBook distribution will “help bridge the digital divide” in the county; that is, provide computers to children whose homes lack them.
While there have been some bumps along the way, computer technology — whether on laptops or desktops — is now seamlessly woven into nearly every aspect of Henrico County Schools. Although elementary students aren’t issued laptops, they nonetheless are immersed in computer technology to read, write and research.
By the time they graduate, the county’s students have had nearly eight years of experience in the direct use of laptops as their prime learning tool. “Eight years!” marvels Lloyd Brown, director of staff technology for Henrico County Schools. “So they’re already light-years ahead of anyone who hasn’t had eight years of experience using the Internet, being able to research, and knowing what’s good and bad in that research.”
