Students + Computers + Educational Environment = Global Success

In the Fargo Forum today, one article in particular caught my eye. It was about students at Fargo’s Madison Elementary School and their new pilot program. This pilot program will put five mini-laptops in every classroom at Madison Elementary School, giving a rough student to computer ratio of four to one.

I found this interesting because a big focus of this class is technology and the different ways it is available to different types of people. I think these mini-laptops are a great way to introduce children to technologies and their associated responsibilities on a scale that they will be comfortable with.

West Fargo Public Schools actually ordered 200 of the mini-laptops this summer for our new STEM Center that opened this fall. Each student that attends the STEM Center is issued a laptop at the same time they are issued textbooks. It is their responsibility throughout the year, and if it is not returned in the way it was issued, the student and their parents are responsible for replacing it, just like a textbook.

Thus the mini-laptops are used to teach the whole student 21st century skills. For anyone involved in the education industry, you know that 21st century skills and 21st century learning are becoming topics of mass discussion and debate across the country. Everyone wants good things and new things for their kids. The only thing we seem to disagree on is how we get it to them.

Yes, the mini-laptops are a fairly new tool, but they will not remain the newest tool for very long. The question plaguing school districts is when should they pull the trigger and become a technologically savvy district? Should they do it now with mini-laptops, or should they wait for the next technology wave that brings phone-sized devices with laptop-sized capabilities? Most districts will not be capable of upgrading from one technology to another every time a new one hits the market.

Thankfully, a lot of big corporations and organizations see the benefits of 21st century learning, and many have created partnerships or grants that are awarded to schools to do things like what Fargo and West Fargo are doing. Without the financial, and often technological, expertise of people like this, school districts would be left behind.

If we want our students to participate and excel in the global market, doing things like West Fargo’s STEM Center and Madison Elementary’s pilot program are critical. Supporting those initiatives is also crucial. They are the foundation for getting technology into the hands of children at an early age.