Leading the way to cyber-learning

It’s not just laptops that high school students in Beverly and Burlington are issued. It’s a whole new route to education.

August 28, 2011|By Steven A. Rosenberg, Globe Staff

Beverly Highs Casey Hogan, 15, logs on to a MacBook as her parents, Patty… (John Tlumacki/Globe Staff )

Casey Hogan had never been inside a school in August, but earlier this month she arrived at Beverly High School to pick up a computer she’s been waiting to use for years. After identifying herself as an incoming sophomore, she was handed an Apple MacBook, and was online within minutes.

“I can use it and won’t have to share it with anybody else,’’ said Hogan, 15, a member of one of the first four classes at Beverly High School that will be required to use a laptop. Along with Burlington High School, Beverly is one of the first high schools in northeastern Massachusetts to require a mobile learning device during school hours.

In Beverly, parents lease the laptops for their children for $28 a month, and can purchase them when their children graduate if they have paid a total sum of $1,344. To date, more than 1,000 students have leased the laptops that they’ll take home each night. About 200 will use computers loaned by the school and another 50 will bring their own laptops to school.

Judy Miller, the Beverly schools’ technology director, said the laptops are available through a lease agreement with Apple.

In Burlington, all 1,100 high school students have received iPad 2s to use during the school year. There is no charge, but parents are responsible for the tablet computers that retail for $499, and many have taken out optional insurance on the devices. High School principal Patrick Larkin said the school has been planning to implement the new-style learning program for more than a year, a program that has been popular in Iowa and Maine but has been slow to catch on in this state.

“Our job is to move forward and not create environments that are inhibiting,’’ said Larkin, who is also hoping to phase out textbooks in the next three years and replace them with an online curriculum created by students, teachers, and other educators.

Larkin said the school district built $200,000 into its annual budget to cover the cost of the iPads.

The two schools have their own policies regarding students’ Internet use. Both have filter and monitoring systems that prevent students from accessing sexually explicit websites. While Beverly plans to block students from accessing Facebook and YouTube, Burlington will allow students access to those sites.

Officials from both school departments agree that the main purpose of implementing the program is to give educators and students more resources to engage classroom learning. Both will follow curriculums and guidelines that meet state educational standards.

“It’s not a reach for students,’’ said Beverly High School principal Sean Gallagher. “They’ve grown up with this technology, and in some cases they’re more advanced than us.’’