Tahoma’s one-to-one program in is one of two dozen pilot technology programs the district is launching with a $10 million levy approved by voters last year. It’s also made the paper. Karen Johnson, of the Seattle Times Southeast Bureau, writes,

Students in Barry Fountain's social-studies class will be issued the computers for the school year and will have to pay the insurance deductible if damage occurs.

Ideally, the laptops will allow immediate access to online research, forums and each other. Currently, if Fountain wants his students to use computers at school, he must book the computer lab months in advance.

For example, Fountain plans to use laptops while the class studies stem-cell research. Computers would allow scientists and ethicists at the University of Washington to talk to the class online or by video conference.

"Now our speakers won't have to drive all the way to Maple Valley," Fountain said.

Wireless Internet service, LCD projectors, software upgrades, interactive white boards and other improvements accompany the laptop pilot. A sidebar from the district explains:

The Tahoma School District will collect about $2.5 million each year for the next four years to spend on technology. Here's where the money will go this year:

Building and system upgrades: Wireless Internet access at all schools, upgraded wiring, more network storage capacity.

Support and training: Workshops for teachers, options for courses outside of regular work hours and money for four technology coaches and a coordinator.

Updating equipment: Software upgrades, new computers for staff and students; classrooms will be stocked with document cameras and LCD projectors.

Technology pilot programs: Tahoma launches three pilot projects this school year, including a laptop program at Tahoma High School for students enrolled in the Endeavor Program, a mobile-laptop lab in middle schools, and interactive white boards for middle-school, junior-high and high-school math programs. Teachers and individual schools will test projects for classroom and school use.

Officials of the Maple Valley school district will be evaluating the program for extension to all students at the high school level. “Other districts throughout the area have included laptops in their technology budget,” writes Johnson, “but few public schools have launched programs where students take home the computers they use in the classroom.”

Nearby Renton School District provides 60 laptops to each of its high schools and junior highs and 50 laptops to each of its elementary schools. The machines stay at school, and administrators hope to expand the program.

The Technology Academy in the Kent School District has for several years given computers to students to take home. The program started at Mill Creek Middle School with 90 seventh-graders in 2003 and now includes 180 middle-school students and 125 high-school freshmen. They hope to expand to all students by the end of this year. Kent followed models in the Shoreline and Northshore districts.

Source and complete article: The Seattle Times, Tahoma schools launch technology programs