a great idea. We have always just generalized and many kids don't
make it to the end of the day. Even though we emphasize plugging in
the laptop every night from day one, many students "forget". But, we
ask each student to bring their chargers along every day just in
case. We have a policy that the computer is not an excuse for failing
to turn in work on time. That keeps the overall responsibility of
managing the laptop in the students' court. As the previous posters
noted that as the batteries age and have reduced charge times. To
that end, we have deployed an unused laptop lab cart in a commons
area to allow the students to safely plug in their laptops during
"down" times like lunch and PE class.
In the lower grades the Macbook's quick boot times actually allow the
students to shut them down between uses and we have few problems with
those batteries draining. Once they get into middle school though,
online texts and note taking become daily routine making total
runtime much higher. We will begin our academic assessment for
realistic time management and challenge our students to make it to
the end. Maybe even "reward" the kids who make it to the end of day
on a regular basis.
Great post!
Fred Austin
The Oakwood School
Greenville, NC
On Feb 9, 2008, at 8:15 AM, Jennifer Voorhees wrote:
> I really like Jim's idea of tying the question of productive use of
> the laptops to conservation of power. It puts some perspective on
> the amount of power we demand (more popularly our "carbon
> footprint") and helps students see the real need to husband these
> resources as opposed to using them frivolously. This conversation
> then extends far beyond the laptop program to our personal and
> community-wide habits in regards to power and energy.
>
> And the solution once again makes it the responsibility of the
> student to be prepared, organized, and thoughtful, rather than the
> teacher or IT department's job to supply support services to them
> for every aspect of their lives.
>
> Jenni Swanson Voorhees
> Sidwell Friends School
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: A forum for independent school educators on behalf of Jim
> Heynderickx
> Sent: Sat 2/9/2008 4:16 AM
> To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
> Subject: Re: Battery "best practices" in an 1:1 environment
>
> Hi, Dave
>
> I've been sharing an idea on this topic that I've seen work
> successfully
> at two schools. First, a school should determine how many hours
> during
> the school day a laptop really should be used for academic work.
> Is it
> 2 hours, 3 hours, 4 hours during the school day (8-3?).
>
> A new Macbook battery can carry a charge for about 3.5 hours. It may
> only be able to do that for about 18 months of use, but typically they
> can run that long if the use of the laptop is managed well.
>
> So, consider this idea. If the goal of a laptop program is quality of
> use and not quantity of use, what if students didn't have AC
> adapters at
> school? What if the challenge for students was to manage their laptop
> and battery use to make one full charge last for the school day?
>
> Of course, there would be exceptions. A student could be loaned an
> adapter if the battery is out by the last period (but not every day).
> In science, there may need to be adapters for hours of probe data
> collection. Batteries that begin to fail will need to be replaced.
>
> The benefit, however, is that the use of the laptops could be more
> focused. Additionally, most of the electrical cable clutter in
> classrooms is removed. The laptops weigh less being transferred from
> home to school and back again. The laptop cases can be narrower
> because
> there doesn't need to be an outside pocket for the adapter. Finally,
> the laptops will likely last longer if their use was more focused
> during
> the day, and their use as "big iPods" just before and after school was
> reduced.
>
> So, just an idea. I have seen it work successfully, but obviously
> it's
> not a fit for all laptop programs.
>
>
> Jim Heynderickx
> Director of Technology
> American School in London
>
>
> Dave Candelario wrote:
>> We're in the process of developing our 1:1 implementation plans.
>> I'm very interested to hear from 1:1 schools that have a good
>> solution to
>> keeping student laptop batteries charged.
>
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