LaCrosse schools mark big technology upgrade

Classic homework excuses such as “my dog ate my homework,” “I left it at home by accident” and even “I was absent” are not working too well in the LaCrosse School District these days, but “my computer crashed” or “my wi-fi wasn’t working” might stand up.

The LaCrosse School District worked over the summer on technological upgrades, and those are now showing in the classroom.

“We made a lot of changes in our school this year. We’re teaching with technology,” said Superintendent Doug Curtis. “We’re now a one-to-one school. Every kid has their own laptop.”

“We’ve been upgrading our internal network, and we’ve got wireless all over the school,” said Jeff Gates, who teaches history and is the school’s technology director.

The laptop – a Google Chromebook – accompanies the students with them throughout their school day, but does not actually go home with them.

“It’s allowed for great collaboration between students and teachers,” said Gates, noting things such as instantaneous feedback and working together on projects as benefits of the technology upgrades.

The Chromebook can be used in a variety of ways in the classroom.

Codi Titus, who teaches keyboarding and computers at the elementary level and also works as business education teacher at the high school, said the students have grasped onto the technology.

“Some of the third and fourth graders know more than I do,” she commented.

Titus said the district already previously was participating in a program called Hour of Code which the students participated in for a week in December.

“They try to get people throughout the nation to go online and learn how to code,” she explained.

What she is doing with her students in the classroom now is similar, but at a higher level, she said.

“Before, there was no real goal at the end, and now that we’re doing it daily, they’re seeing how it works,” said Titus.

Her students, she said, are able to go online and apply what they are learning in the classroom through the program.

“It’s teaching them how to use their Algebra without knowing they’re using Algebra,” said Titus. “I think they like it. It’s better than just sitting there and keyboarding. They see how games are made.”

One benefit of the program, Titus said, is it allows the students to work at their own levels. She has students in different grades in her classroom at the same time because of the small school setting.

“I have kids at all different levels,” she said. “It gives them lessons every day, and it just shows me a graph of what they’re doing. The kids can help each other.”

Science and engineering teacher Matt Wysock has also found the technology useful in his classroom. He works at the middle school level. One of the ways he has found it useful is the access it affords him and the students.

“I have a class page for each of the classes I teach, and they can share and submit work online. I can read it over, leave comments, do revisions and leave grades on there,” he said. “I can access that anywhere in the world. I can even watch them work on a paper in real-time and give real-time feedback. That’s been valuable and handy.”

While he has not been able to conclusively say yet if the technology has increased student performance or engagement, he did say it has decreased late assignments and students missing assignments due to absences.

“They can access all that stuff from home, as long as they have an Internet connection,” said Wysock.

He does not use the Chromebooks for everything.

“I haven’t found a way to do labs real effectively,” he commented. “It’s got its limits, things that are easier to do on paper. But it’s been very valuable.”

Wysock also said the transition for the students from using technology for fun to school has been interesting to observe.

“They’re used to using them to do the things they want to do, not for school work,” he said, relating that some students forget the Chromebooks can be used as a tool to find answers. “When it comes to class work, it doesn’t necessarily occur to them to use that as a resource.”

Wysock has had his eighth grade students working on creating their own web pages, and he also has students working with robotics.

“They’ve been really interested in some parts more than others, and they’ve enjoyed creating something that was interesting to them,” he said.

Gates said the technology has provided big upgrades, and the school is monitoring how the Chromebooks affect student performance.

“We had aging equipment. It’s better than what we had in the classrooms,” he said. “We do MAPs testing throughout the year to monitor progress, and we’re surveying students and teachers about it.”

Titus said she hopes to see this technology pay off.

“I just hope that our students are competitive with those students in bigger schools where these classes are more readily available,” she said.

Gates also said he sees technology playing a big role in the future of education, and he hopes the technology will help to prepare students for their futures.

“It’s getting those kids ready,” he said.

The district was able to finance the upgrades through a levy which was specific to upgrade technology for the benefits of students.