Benjamin Fernandez

FIB Word Test

How has the introduction of a oneto-one laptop program affected

middle school students in UWCSEA
1.Introduction to the research question
Schools are increasingly dependent on technology to enhance the learning environment for students. This will
inevitably impact how students spend their time both in class and out. While some educators have shown that there are
positive benefits to motivation and participation, others argue that this is outweighed by the cost of the technology and
the problems with cyber-bullying and distraction. When researching the topic, it is hard to come upon a definitive
answer, as many schools have tried and failed while others have obtained pleasing results. Both negative and positive
effects will be magnified when students have a laptop available in every class.
This year, my school, UWCSEA decided to implement a one to one laptop program for grades 6 to 12. While I
understand high school students getting laptops, as they are considerably more mature and are about to enter University,
where laptops are vital nowadays, I was surprised that middle school students of such young age were given laptops.
When I was in grade 6, not only did I have restricted time when using a computers, but I also had to ask my parents for
permission, and I most certainly did not have my own laptop.
Since this is such a new initiative I am interested in finding out whether the impact of this program on middle school
students is more positive than negative. Therefore, my question is: How has the introduction of a one-to-one laptop
program affected middle school students in UWCSEA? I will limit this investigation to UWCSEA Dover Campus
middle school students. I will not look into academic performance in terms of grades and results, as this would make the
topic too broad, but will focus this essay on the impact of ubiquitous laptop access on the learning experiences of the
students rather than the outcomes.

Benjamin Fernandez

FIB Word Test

2.Background to the research question

2.1

1 to 1 laptop programs

A one to one laptop program consists of providing each student in a school with their own laptop. This means that every
student will have access to software and online tools provided by the school along with the wide variety of resources
that the Internet offers. In order to do this, a school will provide hardware, software and infrastructure such as laptops,
networks and Internet access.

2.2

Hardware -Laptop

For the success of a 1:1 laptop program, the laptops provided should be powerful enough to support certain
software, play multimedia, multi task and run smoothly. This requires a powerful enough processor to handle the tasks
on the computer. RAM memory, which is short for Random Access Memory, provides space for your computer to
read and write data to be accessed by the central processing unit. (What is Ram?)

2.3

Network Infrastructure

A school needs to set up a robust network with fast enough wireless access so students can access the Internet.
(Penuel, 2006) Wireless access points should be located in classes and around the school so students have quick access
to the network. (SDUSD IT Department, 2007) In order to
transfer data rapidly from place to place, the school requires
fast speed within its LAN local area network and external
connection speeds to the Internet. Generally, large schools
such as UWC would require a range around 100 Mbit/s as
there are thousands of individuals connecting to the Internet.
(Fryer, 2009)
Security can be a contentious issue, and therefore
restrictions have to be put in place such as firewalls, and
controlled access to distracting sites such as gaming sites.
Schools with an intranet will install a firewall to prevent
outsiders from accessing their private information and to
control what content from the outside is available to their
students, as in Figure 1 (Rouse, Firewall, 2007)

.4

Internet

Cloud computing and cloud storage is recent technology, which has also been incorporated to learning. Tools
such as Drop box or Google Drive can be used to store files in the cloud to be shared later or simply to store as in
Figure 2. Students to make backups of their important documents can use these tools. Printing goes on daily, therefore,
printers have to be set up around school and there have to be print servers, which manage print requests and makes
printer queue information available to end users and network administrators. (Rouse, Print Server, 2010)
Additionally, the school staff has to be trained if positive results are expected. Without a well-trained staff, the
technology is useless since no one will know how to take advantage of it. Lastly, support has to be provided for the
moments when someones computer experiences an error, or breaks down, etc. (PLC, 2010)

Benjamin Fernandez

2.5

2.6

FIB Word Test

Potential Positive Impacts on Middle School Students

They will experience an increase in enthusiasm and engagement in
learning
They will have the chance to learn in more varied ways and produce work
that is of better quality due to new technological tools
They will learn and develop values and skills such as community,
teamwork and leadership
They will develop independent research skills required by many market
sectors nowadays
They will save money on textbooks and relieve stress from their back

Key ideas from my background research

The background reading suggested a wide range of potential impacts on middle school students. The following
factors appear to be the most significant ones that could be followed up in my investigation.

2.7

Potential Negative Impacts on Middle School Students

They will experience an increase in cyber-bullying due to more students
having laptops
They will be affected by negative consequences such as wasted time and
misuse of resources if teachers and themselves are not well trained.
They will have new distractions and cheating methods.
Students might break and lose laptops as well as experiences downtime
with the networks.
Their parents might not be able to afford it, meaning they are left out of
the program

Positives

Negatives

enthusiasm

cyber-bullying

variety

wasted time

communication

cheating

research

hardware damage

money

money

Benjamin Fernandez

FIB Word Test

3 Investigation
In order to see if the potential impacts found globally are also significant in the local environment of UWCSEA, I
interviewed different members of the UWCSEA staff along with two students from middle school. To get as much
information as possible from different standpoints, I interviewed one 7 th grade student who received the laptop last year,
and one 8th grade student who had no laptop last year and received one this year. This way, the 7 th grade student was
able to describe her one-year experience with laptops while the 8 th grade student was able to compare his non-laptop
year to the current one with laptop. I chose interviews over surveys as they go more in depth and are more flexible in
terms of obtaining varied information

1 Works Cited
What is Ram? 17 February 2011. 13 June 2012
<http://kb.iu.edu/data/ahty.html>.