Bridging the digital divide: Kent students get computers

Wednesday was a big day at Mill Creek Middle School in Kent, with every student in the school getting a new laptop computer as part of the kent School District's One-to-One program.

Librarian Mary Lee O'Connor helps seventh-grader Amandip Kaur; 12; during the Sept. 24 deployment day for the One-to-One laptop program at Mill Creek Middle School.

Librarian Mary Lee O'Connor helps seventh-grader Amandip Kaur; 12; during the Sept. 24 deployment day for the One-to-One laptop program at Mill Creek Middle School.

Wednesday was a big day at Mill Creek Middle School in Kent, with every student in the school getting a new laptop computer as part of the kent School District’s One-to-One program.

Funded by a 2006 technology levy, the One-to-One program seeks to level the playing field between students, as well as to better prepare them for life outside of school, where computer use is the norm.

“Their lives don’t exist without technology,” said Director of School Technology Services Dani Pfeiffer in an interview this week. “And it really does prepare them for the future.”

Students lined up all day long this past Tuesday and Wednesday as Mill Creek became the first school in the district to extend its computer program to all students. Last school year, the seventh-graders – now this year’s eighth-graders – each were loaned laptops in February.

Wednesday, there was excitement in the room as seventh-graders stopped in to pick up their new computers, register them and get a quick course in how to log on to the district’s servers.

According to Pfeiffer, every time the students use their laptops to connect to the Internet, they will have to do so through the district’s servers, which are protected with a filter program to restrict students from visiting social networking sites, Youtube, or inappropriate content.

Before they’re allowed to take their computers home, however, each student also must pass a basic skills exam that will teach them to properly save files, navigate through programs, caring for their computers, as well as protecting themselves on the Internet.

Until they can pass those requirements, the computers are for in-school use only.

Teachers at the middle school are receiving training to integrate the computers into their lesson plans. Parents, too, will have to take part in an Internet-safety class before the laptops go home with the students.

The classes will take place sometime in the next four to six weeks.

Emrie Hollander, the Teacher on Special Assignment with the laptop program, said the kids also will help teach the teachers, which she called “empowering.”

On top of that, having information at student fingertips helps to level the playing field, in a district that is culturally diverse and at a school where family-income levels vary greatly.

For example, Hollander said, if teachers are doing a math or reading problem that involves a carnival, some foreign students may not know what a carnival is. They’ll now have the power to look it up with ease.

“It’s amazing,” Hollander said. “It opens up so much of the world for the kids.”

Principal Anthony Brown lauded the program.

“It provides our kids access they may or may not have at home,” he said.

Brown said his school has the highest percentage of free or reduced lunch of any middle school in the district and there is a “digital divide” created between students who have and use the Internet at home and those who do not.

Pfeiffer also noted that recent studies show that fusing technology with lesson plns adds to student achievement and excitement about school.

“It absolutely gets them excited,” she said. “You can see a heightened level of engagement with the students.”

Eighth-graders Alexandra Galvez and Prabpreet Minhas agreed, adding that having the computer also cuts down on the number of excuses one can use to avoid work.

“It makes you do your homework because you really don’t have any excuse – it’s on your computer,” Galvez said.

Having the computers, which come loaded with the Microsoft Office software suite as well as several other programs – including one that allows access to the new SMARTboards installed throughout the district – also means less for the kids to carry.

“It was cool because we didn’t have to carry as many books,” Glavez said.

“Everything we do is pretty much on the computer so we don’t have to search our backpacks,” Minhas agreed.

As the year progresses, students in every middle school in the district will be receiving laptops – approximately 1,800. Pfeiffer said the goal is to go back to voters in 2010 to try and pass a bond to get all students in grades seven through 12 in Kent schools equipped with laptops.

“We’re getting the workforce ready,” Pfeiffer said.

Brian Beckley can be reached at 253-437-6012 or bbeckley@kentreporter.com


Talk to us

Please share your story tips by emailing editor@kentreporter.com.

To share your opinion for publication, submit a letter through our website https://www.kentreporter.com/submit-letter/. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. (We’ll only publish your name and hometown.) Please keep letters to 300 words or less.

More in News

Courtesy Photo, City of Kent
Kent City Council approves B&O tax increases to hire more police

Additional revenue will pay for four police department positions

t
King County executive will nominate replacements for Upthegrove

District 5, which includes parts of Kent, will get new representative on County Council in January

t
SeaTac man, 21, fatally shot in vehicle in Kent on West Hill

Someone ran up and fired multiple shots into vehicle Nov. 21 at Veterans Drive and Military Road

Kentwood High School, 25800 164th Ave. SE, in Covington, remained without power Thursday morning, Nov. 21, according to Puget Sound Energy. COURTESY PHOTO, Kent School District
Kent schools remain closed due to windstorm damage, power outages

Second consecutive day of closures Thursday, Nov. 21 across the Kent School District

t
Kent-based Puget Sound Fire calls windstorm ‘one for the ages’

Agency responds to 308 calls in 12-hour period, including 245 for storm-related issues

Crews clear trees from State Route 18, which the Washington State Patrol closed in both directions Wednesday, Nov. 20, from Issaquah Hobart to I-90 over Tiger Mountain because of fallen trees during a windstorm. COURTESY PHOTO, Washington State Patrol
Windstorm closes Kent schools, roads due to fallen trees

Many without power in areas of Kent and beyond

t
“Prolific” vehicular theft suspect arrested in Renton

Kent man holds 13 prior convictions and 41 arrests.

tt
Green Kent volunteer program wraps up season at city park

Volunteers remove invasive species, plant native trees and shrubs at Mill Creek Canyon Earthworks Park

t
Copper-wire thieves damage Kent Senior Center roof refrigeration unit

Facility temporarily loses commercial kitchen refrigerator but staff, community keep meals going

t
16-year-old girl dies in Covington single-car crash

Teen was driving when car crashed into a tree Nov. 15 along SE 256th Street just east of Kent

t
Kent Police Blotter: Oct. 24-Nov. 7

Incidents include carjacking, juvenile fight, stolen vehicle pursuit