Reading, writing and iPods?
School erases boundaries
Reading, writing and iPods? Howe school erases boundaries

HOWE — The school buildings in this town of fewer than 1,000 people are built on an unassuming dirt hill. About 450 students are in the PreK-12 school, which is spread out on either side of a gravel road bearing a stop sign so old and weathered it is almost unrecognizable except by its shape.

But while this school system near the Arkansas state line is relatively poor and small — 75 percent of students qualify for subsidized lunches, and the superintendent doubles as a bus driver in the afternoon — what goes on in the classrooms could be the envy of almost any other public school in the state.

In a place where not everyone has a home Internet connection or even a home computer, every student in grades three through eight has a personal school laptop to work on, and students in some grades get to take home iPods loaded with class content. Next year, the Le Flore County school district hopes to add a set of iPod Touch devices — essentially iPhones without the phone utility.

The technology is not there for looks. Students use it on a daily basis, and teachers make sure it's used in a way that enhances the students' education and not as a sanctioned distraction.

Of course, funding everything took a little creativity and a lot of grants.

When McKenna Covey, 10, missed a day of class last week, she didn't miss out on the day's lessons.

Her fourth-grade teacher, Carrie Alexander, records her lessons as a SmartBoard captures everything she writes.

In less than five minutes, that can be converted to an iPod-friendly format for McKenna — or any other student — to take home once they return to class.

Alexander also has loaded songs about multiplication facts onto iPods to send home with students who need the math review.

Covey and her classmate, Gaven Brown, also 10, said they like using the iPod for schoolwork.

"It helps me learn, like, it helps you with this long division stuff,” Gaven said.

"It's just like watching TV but on this,” McKenna added while holding one of the iPods.

The other students who get their hands on school iPods are in the broadcast journalism class led by Tammy Parks, the superintendent's wife.

A high school class and a class of eighth-graders each create weekly podcasts that they post online and show to the student body on Friday mornings.

They have used the iPods to record audio and to show their parents what they've done at school.

But iPods aren't the only technology they use. Last Tuesday, students led a live virtual field trip about the Spiro Mounds, an archaeological site, for fifth- and sixth-graders in Michigan.

Their room in the 1920s building has four wall-mounted flat-screen televisions, a makeshift studio in the corner and wall-to-wall computers — a common sight throughout the school. Students and teachers utilize the computer programs Marratech and Moodle to do, well, oodles of things, including store lessons, post homework assignments and instant message each other during class.

Scott Parks said the students don't lose out on learning human interaction skills by typing instead of talking to each other. Instead, he said, it keeps the classroom relatively quiet and the students on task.

Teachers can monitor students' laptop screens remotely to make sure students are doing their work.

If a student is off task or finishes early, teachers often will instant message a student about what he or she should be doing, without having to interrupt the class.

Scott Parks first introduced laptop computers and wireless Internet access to Howe schools eight years ago. iPods were a new feature last year. And next year, the district hopes to add the iPod Touch.

High school science teacher Jim Askew is working on making the Web site for his class completely compatible with the device. That way, students with the gadget could pull up anything they need for the class just by touching the screen, as long as they have an Internet connection.

"I don't use textbooks. ... I don't have a science book in my room that says there are nine planets, and I'll bet there's a whole bunch of science rooms around now that still have science books that say there are nine planets, but that's been changed since Pluto was demoted,” Askew said.

As an added bonus, an iPod or iPod Touch costs less than $300 per student. Laptops cost $1,000.

Still, Askew said what he does takes a lot of work.

"Anybody that thinks technology saves teachers time is wrong.”

The bulk of the cost for the technology at Howe schools is in the hidden infrastructure, which over time has cost between $1.2 million and $1.5 million to build and maintain, Scott Parks said. So how does a district with a $3 million annual budget pay for that?

With a lot of grants, and by using local matching funds.

In the last eight years, the district has received more than $1.5 million in grants from E-Rate, a federal pot of money funded by a tax on people's telephone bills, Parks said.

Parks also looks for other grants, including some outside the educational realm. For instance, the district received money from the state Agriculture Department to help pay for laptops through a distance learning grant, he said.

In addition, Howe technology director Lance Ford uses videoconferencing tools to teach other school districts across the nation how to integrate the technology into their classroom lessons.

Technology supplier Tandberg pays the district $4,000 per training session — or more than $100,000 in the last year and a half — because Howe's expertise has made it the company's national K-12 implementation trainer, Parks and Ford said.

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