An Arizona school district just found a way to get students so engaged on the way to and from school that more homework is getting done and rowdiness on the bus is down.
According to a story story in today’s New York Times, administrators at Empire High School in Vail, Ariz. are experimenting with the use of Wi-Fi on one of its school busses. The students are now using their time on the bus to catch up on e-mail and homework.
The idea for the Internet bus first surfaced when school officials thought they could get more work done themselves if they had WI-FI in their cars, shared rides to long-distance meetings allowing one person to work while the other drove. It became a reality on the bus when one administrator saw an advertisement offering Wi-Fi for the car.
This school district is not shy about using technology. It is already heavily wired (including the football field) and students are issued laptops instead of textbooks. So the experiment began and students, teachers and administrators like the results.
When the athletic department used the bus for a game trip, players and coaches spent their down time catching up on homework and email.
According to the article, school districts in Florida, Missouri, and Washington, D.C. have similar buses. Says Karen Cantor, in the article, the buses are an effort to extend the six-hour school day. Cantor is director of education technology for the federal Department of Education.
At $200 for the router and $60 a month for the Internet service, the wired bus seems a small cost to pay for getting more homework done and cutting down on disciplinary problems.
This is good example of what can happen when educators challenge themselves to think outside the box and seek creative and innovative ways to reach students.
According to a story story in today’s New York Times, administrators at Empire High School in Vail, Ariz. are experimenting with the use of Wi-Fi on one of its school busses. The students are now using their time on the bus to catch up on e-mail and homework.
The idea for the Internet bus first surfaced when school officials thought they could get more work done themselves if they had WI-FI in their cars, shared rides to long-distance meetings allowing one person to work while the other drove. It became a reality on the bus when one administrator saw an advertisement offering Wi-Fi for the car.
This school district is not shy about using technology. It is already heavily wired (including the football field) and students are issued laptops instead of textbooks. So the experiment began and students, teachers and administrators like the results.
When the athletic department used the bus for a game trip, players and coaches spent their down time catching up on homework and email.
According to the article, school districts in Florida, Missouri, and Washington, D.C. have similar buses. Says Karen Cantor, in the article, the buses are an effort to extend the six-hour school day. Cantor is director of education technology for the federal Department of Education.
At $200 for the router and $60 a month for the Internet service, the wired bus seems a small cost to pay for getting more homework done and cutting down on disciplinary problems.
This is good example of what can happen when educators challenge themselves to think outside the box and seek creative and innovative ways to reach students.
Sharon:
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this story. I think that a wifi schoolbus is a great idea, and this is a creative way to fill what would otherwise be "dead" time in students' busy lives. In reading our classmates' blogs, I've been struck by a couple of issues. One is that teachers don't seem to have time within the school year to teach much more than the class content. Another is that some teachers really have to fight to get their students' access to computers. It sounds like this school has addressed both of these issues with one clever idea!
While this is a very interesting attempt at helping students find time for homework, I have concerns about how it will play out over time. It may work for students who spend significant time on the bus everyday, but what about those who only have short bus rides? How long before students become distracted by unproductive and inappropriate material on the internet? I am also concerned that students could develop bad habits of relying on this time and not putting forth more effort at home. It is definitely an intriguing idea, but I think we need to be careful to not rely on technology to simply placate students.
ReplyDeleteSharon,
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing use of technology. I always enjoy reading about these new ideas for your every-day technology. I say this not to minimize wireless routers, but to point out that WiFi is practically common place now and its only been on the market for less than 10 years. Lets face it, we expect it everywhere (even though in reality it is not) and now one can get it on a school bus!
However, I do share the concerns mentioned above. I hope they are monitoring the students use and then have the guts to take the privilege away if abused.
This is absolutely fabulous! I love it. These are the success stories of what can happen when a school, group, community, all get together and decide to make technology a priority. We begin to think of very practical ways to meet the needs of our staff and students.
ReplyDeleteThere is a huge misconception that technology is expensive. Solutions can come in many forms if we are willing to roll up our sleeves and think "outside of the box". In this scenario, one fell swoop caused greater return on homework and decreased the rowdiness - and inevetibly the number of students in detention, ISS or OSS - simultaneously. Now we see technology aiding in scholastic performance as well as conduct. . .amazing!
We're on to something here and I hope the trend continues.
I reallt enjoyed this story and I think certain schools are really challenging their students with good behavior and doing good things to allow them to stay out of trouble. Technology is the future and certain districts know this and are preparing their students for it.
ReplyDelete