This past year, Central Community Unit School District 301 incorporated 4,000 electronic devices into all of its classrooms — from kindergarten to high school.
“I am very pleased with all aspects of the 1:1 program from the infrastructure and the durability of the devices to the responsibility shown by the students and the way our staff has embraced it,” said Superintendent Todd Stirn.
At the beginning of the 2015-16 school year, students at Central High School in Burlington were the first ones to receive their Chromebooks and cases.
Students entering the Central High library were greeted with music, balloons in the school colors of blue and white, and T-shirts that read: “Go 1:1 with D301 – Engage the Mind, Empower the Learner, Inspire Excellence and Influence the World.”
A crew that matched the high school students to an electronic device and then helped them connect to the Internet included Stirn, Assistant Superintendent Esther Mongan, Central High Principal Chris Testone, teachers, former and current school board members, 301 Central Education Foundation members, National Honor Society students, and Central High alumni.
As the school year continued, students received their electronic devices at Central Middle School and Howard B. Thomas Grade School in Burlington, Prairie Knolls Middle School, Prairie View Grade School and Country Trails Elementary School in Elgin, and Lily Lake Grade School in Maple Park.
Chromebooks were given to second graders through high school seniors. Kindergarten and first grade students received Nexus 7 tablets.
In order to receive a device, each student needed to bring in a device agreement signed by both the student and a parent. There is also a technology fee of $50 per year for two years before students can keep their devices.
The Teachers on Special Assignment instructional technologist team of Vince Neil, Stacy Nemec, Michael Doyle and Gail Stover, headed by Matt Smith, technology director, began preparations for the 1:1 program last August.
Smith admitted the program was a huge project.
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“We took a survey of the entire district and went through every building,” Smith said. “We originally only had the bandwidth of a normal home. We increased it 50 times. We rebuilt the data center and moved it from Central High to Prairie Knolls Middle School. We connected it to the generator and added battery back-up and new servers. We also added new high speed wireless in every building. Each educational area in the district is designed to have 300 connections.”
Less than six months after the program was launched, the district has noticed positive results throughout the schools.
During the annual Grandparents Day at Howard B. Thomas Grade School, students in fifth grade teacher Debbie Kloet’s class used an app to age a photograph of themselves to show what they might look like when they are grandparents.
According to the Central 301 Gazette, “Mr. Weick’s eighth grade classes participated in the Hour of Code on Tuesday, Dec. 8. Over 100 students spent the morning writing computer code to accomplish digital tasks.”
According to district officials, The Teachers on Special Assignment team will be presenting “Are You Planning to go 1:1 in Your District? Learn How District 301 went from 0 to 4,000 Devices in Less than Six Months” at the Illinois Computing Educators Conference in February.
Neil, Nemec and Stover will also be presenting at the Northern Illinois Computing Educators Conference in January on Canvas and green screen technology.
Denise Moran is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.