Lára Stefánsdóttir  Head of ICT department: Laptop computers in Akureyri Junior College - MA The views of students and teachers

Implementing ICT in every subject of the school has been one of the main aims of the ICT policy of Akureyri Junior College since 1998. Our teachers have been very enthusiastic, constantly working on new methods implementing ICT in their courses and the students´ studies. Some methods have been successful while we have learned from others that we have to do things differently. One thing is quite clear, if the students don't have good access to computers they are neither as enthusiastic nor as productive in their work. Our teachers started to get laptop computers in October 1999 when half of the teachers bought laptop computers jointly with the school and now 82% of the teachers have laptop computers and others have very good access since there is one computer per staff member that uses a computer in their work. Through that experience we do see that when teachers go from using computers with many others to having their own personal computer their working methods change, both in how they use the computer in their own work as well as in their teaching.

The same does of course apply to our students and last year the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research asked the three innovative junior colleges in ICT to develop a laptop project where students with laptop computers would be in focus. The aim is to work jointly with the Ministry on developing methods for using laptops in the students´ studies. Based on that the Ministry then will form a national policy on the subject.

The teachers´ view
"Getting a lap-top has changed - I should not say everything, but it has changed my work a lot. The main change is having got a private computer - a work-tool no one else has to use when you need it, and being able to use it wherever you want." says Sverrir Páll Erlendsson, a teacher of Icelandic. This seems to be the major change, having their own computer the teachers´ work changes and instead of running to a computer away from their normal working place, although in the same room means that the computer is always at hand, with their own settings, material and furthermore, they can take it with them wherever they go. Teachers in Iceland do lot of their work at home so having the same computer at home as at work is also an important issue.

Teachers prepare their course material, lessons, text, explanations on their laptop computers. They use tools like PowerPoint™ for their lectures and take their computer to the classroom and use it there with an overhead projector. But those are expensive tools and so far the school hasn't bought one for each classroom so it can be a burden to have to carry a laptop computer, an overhead projector and even some books to classes. Still they do it, but admit that it would be better if there was a projector in every classroom. Still it has been too expensive for the school but hopefully that will change. "A contemporary teacher is a man or woman walking along the long corridors carrying a bag of books and papers on one shoulder, a projector on the other shoulder, keys in one hand and an open lap-top like an infant in his or her arms. Coming into the classroom you will first have to find a spot on a desk to put these things on and then you use one third of your time dealing with all kinds of cables and connections. And then you can start teaching :-)" Sverrir Páll continues.

Árný Helga Reynisdóttir an English teacher who has been experimenting with tests on laptop computers says: "Students have taken their English examinations on computers, a method that has turned out exceedingly well. All my students agree on the advantages of being tested like this. They just e-mail the results, I correct them on my computer, and e-mail back. " To be able to evaluate your students on computers is obviously what we are looking at doing in an extensive way, both on interactive web pages as well as written assignments.

The school has offered either  individually or with The Ministry of Education, Culture and Research, development courses for teachers in ICT. These courses are both on the practical use of the computer and software as well as on teaching methods and ICT. Almost every teacher has attended at least one development course and many are very active and have attended many courses. Árný Helga says: "The courses that I have taken in computer technology have finally proved practical, because I believe that computers have to be integrated into everyday work to be functional. I find this especially true about creating one's own web material."

Communication between teachers and staff has increased dramatically. The e-mail is used as a discussion tool on school issues on a day to day basis. A German teacher Harpa Sveinsdóttir says: "I follow all the news and announcements within the school that come in my e-mail. I use the e-mail for communication both inside the institution as well as outside. This is a revolution for me." One of the general views of teachers and staff is that now they know much better than before what is happening in the institution.

 

 

Student laptop computers
Right now just one class has laptop computers which the school provided. These are 3rd grade linguistic line students. Their class is called 3A and is referred to as such in this paper. The school owns 10 laptop computers that teachers can get to their classes, a so-called "laptop lab" and it is used more and more since the teachers seem to like having the computers in their traditional classrooms in students' group work instead of going to a traditional computer lab.

· Better organized
Around 60 students have their own laptop computers but they are in different grades and different classes so the teachers can not change their lessons as they could do if all the students in the class had laptop computers. These students still hold the view that the laptop helps a lot. Student Hannes Árdal says "I can tell you that my laptop has changed my studies tremendously, my notes are better organized than before, they contain more quantity of information, i.e a greater part of the study material than before." Two girls in 3A say "...our notes are more organized" and two boys also in 3A say "When we use laptops we become more organized, most of the summaries are in the computers, where they are easy to find, and you are not drowning in paper."

 

· Different working method
"After we received these laptops, homework has been easier and more fun. Being able to search for information while listening to the teacher and your favorite music all in one is a new and positive change for us." say students in 3A. For teachers this sounds horrifying. Searching for information, listening to a teacher AND your favorite music. We have discussed this a lot. Our English teacher told me that she had a rather complex listening practice one day for 3A. "I was horrified, they didn't seem to be listening but doing all kinds of stuff on their computers. What surprised me enormously was when I asked them to solve questions based on the listening practice they actually could answer all questions but one and it was equal or more to what the class without laptops did." I wondered about this and asked the class. Their common opinion was that teachers feared far too much what they where doing on their computers. "They don't know what goes on in our heads, if we look out of the window we might be thinking about something totally different from the subject or what the teacher is saying." They also said "we can do more than one thing at a time, teachers shouldn't worry about what we are doing". I suggested that they were becoming a new human specie the "multitasking man" and to my surprise instead of taking it as a joke they seriously wondered if people were changing due to the technology existing today.

· Emotional laptop users
Students quite often refer to how they feel about the laptop computers and admit that they play in class. "In a boring lessons you can play computer games, which is much more fun than staring out the window." two students in 3A say. Another student says "we are not as bored in class as we were before", and two other students in 3A say "before we got the computers sometimes we got so bored that we started paying attention to the teacher, but now when we have the computers we never get bored." Then "After we received these laptops, homework has been easier and more fun." So they seem to feel better but reading their comments one is not sure whether it is for the better or worse.

· Learning more - digging deeper
Student Hannes Árdal says "because of the laptop all tasks are done faster and are easier which leads to my not having to spend a lot of time on some basic work instead I'm able to dig deeper into the subject at hand and through that get more insight and develop a broader mind on the task." Two students in 3A say "Laptop computers that are connected to the Internet open a new world of studying, you can browse the Internet, and use e-mail to contact students in other countries and send your work. The spelling checker in Word can come in handy when writing something in English, and other languages, to keep both spelling and grammar correct." Although the laptop can be distracting it also opens up new dimensions on getting more information, using tools to help out with what students are doing and so forth.

· Equal opportunity?
Student Örlygur Hnefill Örlygsson says "Those who choose to participate have to pay for the computers and it is therefore clear that there isn't equal access for everyone. The reality is that it depends on the financial situation of each student if he or she can participate in the ICT development and therefore there is a big gap between the rich and the poor." This is a key issue, who can buy laptop computers and who cannot. This school year the price for a sufficient laptop computer has been around 1.700 EUR and its quite enough. for parents that have to send their children to another town to study, to pay for a dormitory or rent a flat, to buy food at the school cafeteria or food to cook at home. Books are also expensive and to add a laptop computer to that is simply too much for many of them. Some even have two children in college and it might be hard financially just to be able to keep them both in school. As Örlygur Hnefill continues "The advantage [having a laptop computer] should be clear to most, but it is important in my point of view to plan this project in a different way. It can't be done thus that those schools that emphasize on using laptops are only for the rich."

Conclusion
Although I admit I haven't reached the ultimate conclusion on the issue on laptop computers in class I have to admit that the view I hold now is that a laptop computer is very important both for teachers as well as students. So important that it cannot be only for the better off. Somehow we have to find a way to make it possible for all students at the junior college school stage to have one through their 4 years at this school stage. It is impossible for teachers to change their teaching methods until every student in the class has a computer. Some schools create special groups of those who have laptop computers, this is something I do think we have to do, at the same time it is with regret to hold that view since it might lead to a widening of the gap between rich and poor, those who hold the opportunities and those who don't. But on the other hand it is not fair to those who have worked hard in order to acquire a computer themselves either with or without support from their parents not to give them the opportunity to make the best out of their investment.

Akureyri April 25th 2001
©Lára Stefánsdóttir, lara@lara.is, http://www.lara.is All rights reserved.

Pictures and layout:
©Sverrir Páll Erlendsson, svp@ma.is, http://www.ma.is/kenn/svp