Overcoming Obstacles

Paul Matia is a bright, athletic 17-year-old high school junior, but dyslexia slows his reading comprehension. When he was younger, he’d sometimes misread instructions and do his homework wrong. In fact, homework was often an all-night ordeal.

To compensate, his parents double-checked instructions to make sure he was doing his homework correctly. They also read his textbooks out loud to him every night, so he could finish the work on time. “He could always read by himself, but it was laborious,” recalls his mom, Sharon Matia.

Now, he reads much more quickly and by himself, thanks to a one-to-one computing program at the Lawrence School, an independent school in Ohio that educates students in grades 1 through 12 with dyslexia, attention deficit disorder and other learning differences.

The school, with campuses in Broadview Heights and Sagamore Hills, equips its 130 high school students with tablet PCs and software that helps them overcome their disabilities.

For students with reading difficulties, text-to-speech software converts text, such as scanned copies of books, into speech. The program doubles as a speech recognition tool, allowing students with writing difficulties to speak into microphones and have their words converted into text on the computer. A second application acts like an electronic binder, where students with attention deficit disorder can take class notes and store their homework and school documents in a digital format and not lose anything. A third application, a software program called Inspiration, helps students diagram and outline their papers. Essentially, the technology helps students rise above their difficulties and allows them to succeed in school.

Pilot Pays Off

“The technology levels the playing field and allows them to blossom,” says Ryan Masa, Lawrence School’s Upper School academic dean. “It removes the obstacles and assists them with what is most difficult for them, whether it’s reading, organization or another skill they struggle with.”

Paul, for example, no longer struggles with school work and has a grade point average that is above 4.0 because he took honors and Advanced Placement courses. The text-to-speech software reads his assignments and books to him. “It’s a lot easier to sit down and listen to a book than it is to read it,” Paul says. “It’s just the way my brain is wired.”

He finishes his studies so quickly now that he has time to pursue outside interests after school, including the Boy Scouts and playing for his school basketball team, his mother says.

Sally Garza, Lawrence’s director of technology, first piloted the one-to-one program during fall 2004 with 10 students and a few teachers. Students who received C and D grades started earning As and Bs. The next year, more students asked to join the pilot, and the program increased to about 40 students. The results were so positive, school administrators formally launched a one-to-one program for all high school students 18 months ago.

Garza and the school staff carefully tested the different technologies available. When choosing between tablets and regular notebook computers, they settled on tablets because they are more durable, have longer battery life and weigh less — important considerations because students carry them all day and bring them from home to school and back.

Choosing the Technology

Lawrence School standardized on Lenovo X61 ThinkPad tablets, which include a 12.1-inch screen, a 1.67GHz Intel Core Duo 2 processor, 1 gigabyte of RAM and an 80GB hard drive. The 4-pound ultraportable computer has a full-size keyboard and its eight-cell battery lasts about seven and a half hours, more than triple the battery life of a notebook PC, Garza says.

During the pilot, the school purchased the computers for their students. But with the formal one-to-one program in place, administrators are now requiring parents of incoming freshmen to purchase the computers.

Even though parents paid for the tablets, the student computer program still required the school to make a big tech investment. To handle bandwidth requirements, Garza upgraded the school’s network, built a Wi-Fi network and installed an online grade book, which allows students and parents to check homework assignments and grades online.

With the older students getting new computers, administrators transferred the school’s computer labs — totaling 56 computers — to the lower grades, so its elementary and middle school students can use them.

Garza and the Upper School tech coordinator troubleshoot most computer problems, such as reimaging software and replacing keyboards and hard drives. But if the problems are more complex, they ship the computers back to Lenovo for repairs.

Teaching with Tablets

Garza and two tech coordinators provide regular computer training to teachers and students. In fact, next year Garza will teach a new mandatory ninth-grade class on computer skills, Internet research skills and Internet safety. To better integrate the computers into classroom instruction, administrators have purchased interactive whiteboards, allowing teachers to use their tablets and project videos and other applications onto the screens.

Because every student learns differently, Masa says it’s critical for educators today to give students a “multisensory approach” to learning, from videos to hands-on projects, because it engages them and makes them excited to learn. High school science teacher Karen Callahan agrees and regularly incorporates multimedia into her classes. In astronomy, for example, students recently went to NASA’s website to track and view pictures of sunspots.

Instead of having students write only papers, teachers now ask students to produce PowerPoint presentations or even videos to show they comprehend the material they learn in class, says Adam Havel, a seventh- and eighth-grade history and world geography teacher. And when they do write papers, the Inspiration program helps the students visually organize their ideas, and the text-to-speech program helps them “proof” their papers by reading their work back to them.

“Our students’ confidence level increases. They no longer say, ‘I hate writing,’” Havel says.

Students Reach Potential

Paul Matia has three colleges on his wish list, including Notre Dame, and he is thinking about studying sports management. During the past year, he took Advanced Placement and honors classes, and he would never have had the opportunity to do so without the tablet and the educational software, his mother says.

“We always told him, ‘Try hard. You can do it.’ ” Sharon Matia says. “He’s always known he’s smart, and going to Lawrence has kept his confidence level up. The school, and the technology, has taught him to learn more about how he learns, and how he needs to get the material presented to him.”

“We want them to walk out the door totally independent in their learning, and the technology has helped fulfill their needs,” Garza says.