Notes from Westside High School

Westside High School in Omaha, Nebraska implemented a 1 to 1 initiative putting an I-book in the hands of their 2100 high school students almost three years ago. Rex, Joanie, Kay, Judy Griffin and myself went to the school to hear from teachers and see this approach to providing technology first hand.

Now, the enormity of the school, staff, departments and almost everything that is in this public school doesn't match real well with CAM High School and it's size. However, the stories and demonstrations were more than motivating for me, and judging by the comments on the drives home, hopefully everyone who attended.

We heard from a CAD instructor who would never give up his AutoCAD and PC lab, who now uses a program popular throughout the world called "Vectorworks" ran on MAC and his PC lab is gone; There was the French teacher who marched into the Central Office proclaiming "This is a big mistake" who now has students performing at unbelievable levels using technology. We heard from, and saw about a dozen teachers and many who were very skeptical.

The administration was very proactive and put the content decisions in the hands of the teachers. Also, there were no quotas, or mandated lesson plan integration models. The teachers implemented at their own pace and were required to show off what they were doing in their departments.

Most of our teachers are the "department" but we have study teams, we have more powerful computers in our hands and we have a group ready to deliver professional development that will give teachers the basics and offer opportunities to do more.

I tried to be as much of a skeptic as I could, but the sincerity and the shear demonstration of the material from the teachers has me excited for the future of eduction....especially at CAM High School