By BRADEN LAMMERS
A program that has been two years in the making launched its final step Wednesday morning, but the success of the program will likely not be known for at least another five years.
Charlestown Middle School launched its One-to-One computer initiative thanks in part to $84,000 being paid over three years out of the city’s Tax Increment Financing money pledged by the Charlestown City Council.
The program has already been launched at Charlestown High School, which is being paid for by a $600,000 grant approved by the Greater Clark County Schools Board, allowing each student at the high school to get an I-Mac laptop.
The dedication of the city’s funds gave each seventh- and eighth-grade student their own laptop to use with sixth-graders sharing 120 computers.
Charlestown Mayor Bob Hall was a driving force behind implementing the program as it is designed to be part of a technological initiative to get 90 percent of high school graduates to move onto post-secondary education and is a major piece of his economic development plan for the city.
“We have to get our economic situation around tech and be able to incubate businesses that will allow these kids to come back and be a part of or come back and start their own [businesses],” Hall said.
“Maybe the best analogy is like giving birth to a baby,” he said of the initiative. “You’ve waited on it .... but yet you recognize that your work’s not done.”
The work and success or failure of the program will likely not be realized until the sixth-grade students are graduating from high school in 2016, officials say.
“All you digital kids ... we need you to get committed to go to college and vocational schools and choose professions that you can prepare yourselves for,” Hall said. “You’re the ones that are going to show the success of this program.”
The program in its infancy is already depending on the students to help it grow.
A group of students called “Tech-mates” have volunteered to work with other students and even train teachers on working with the computers.
The group meets for training about once-a-week and have already been offering help to both students and teachers.
“So far it’s been pretty easy,” said eighth-grade student Krista Sedlacek. “[I’m] basically just giving pointers if someone is having trouble figuring something out and basic troubleshooting.”
Sedlacek said she has experience with computers and figured she would be good at helping other students with technical problems.
Fellow eighth-grade student Kayla Schladen also signed up to be a Tech-Mate.
“I just thought I’d join because I grew up basically around computers,” she said.
Though it may be seemingly engrained as part of their lives, being around computers does not guarantee success, according to school officials.
“This project has a chance ... to be huge,” said Greater Clark County Schools Superintendent Stephen Daeschner. “There isn’t anything more important that we can give kids today than the technology skills.”
Daeschner added the three most important subjects parents want their children prepared for are English, mathematics and technology.
“We want our kids to graduate and be able to use technology like never before,” Daeschner said. “But our kids have to have it. They’ll have to have it when they hit college because many of the courses they are about to learn are going to be communicated through technology.”
But in order for the program to work, it has to be used, he said.
“Every single period, of every single day the laptop needs to be in use sometime during that class period,” Daeschner said. “If that is done I guarantee you success.”
To ensure that success teachers have been training on the laptops for the last two months.
“The computers are simply tools in this learning process,” said Charlestown Middle School Principal Joyce Traub. “Our teachers will need to devote much time and effort in developing lessons and teaching practices that will engage our students and make this One-to-One initiative relevant and effective.”
Curriculum, lesson plans and projects are already being developed for the students.
The teachers are undergoing training in the mornings before school, adding up to about two to three hours per week, which does not include the time spent after school developing lesson plans.
“It’s a huge undertaking and people are giving up their own time to do this,” Traub said. “They are so excited.”
Much of the work being developed on the computers will be project-based and group oriented, she said.
