Sustainable 1 to 1 Learning Transforms District’s Culture
Profiles in Success: Denali Borough School District
Healy, AK — At sporting events, it’s easy to pick out students from the Denali Borough School District: They’re the ones sitting in the bleachers, using their iBook laptops. Since the fall of 2004, when iBook and PowerBook laptops were distributed to all sixth- to twelfth-grade teachers and students in the district, classroom culture has undergone a dramatic transformation. Now, says Pete Vraspir, chief information officer for the district, “Our students can’t imagine being without their Apple laptops for even an hour.”
Denali’s 1 to 1 learning environment has now been implemented in all three of the district’s schools, plus its “Peak Performance” home school program. In addition to the Apple laptop distribution, the schools’ lower grades now have older PowerBook Wireless Mobile Labs, making the technological learning environment available to all students and teachers throughout the district.
“Our kids are incredibly engaged in a huge variety of learning activities with the Apple laptops. They’ve become completely accustomed to using them, and would never be without the computers if they had a choice.”
— Pete Vraspir, Chief Information Officer, Denali Borough School District
Vraspir says the Apple laptops have enabled powerful technology tools to become infused throughout all learning activities and content areas. Students have switched from traditional pen-and-paper reports to creating rich digital research projects using the iLife suite, and saving them in electronic portfolios and DVDs. Teachers have set up electronic drop-boxes on their schools’ Xserves, which enable paperless submission and grading of classroom assignments. And, district Xserve RAID systems house the schools’ ever-growing digital archives of students’ work.
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