Alexandria City Public Schools

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T.C. Williams' 1:1 Learning Environment Overview

ACPS provides and configures laptops to T.C. Williams' students as a tool to increase the following: access to the curriculum and assessment; communication and collaboration with teachers, students and parents; opportunities and methods for more individualized instruction; transparency into the classroom for the students, teachers, parents and administrators.

Overview of the Laptop Program

A laptop computer is provided to each student in grades 9-12. Students are allowed to keep this computer with them 24x7 for the duration of the school year. While at school, students have access to a high speed 54MB wireless network which provides connectivity to school-based resources such as servers, applications, e-mail, the ACPS Internet connection, and printing services. While away from school, students can access any wireless network by using the connection software, "Wireless Wizard", installed on each machine. With this software, a student can access the Internet at any Wi-Fi accessible site, including Starbucks, Panera, public libraries and other popular free Wi-Fi locations. To meet federal requirements, ACPS implemented safeguards that filter traffic through the school's firewall while the students are outside of school. This allows ACPS to provide safe and secure access both on and off campus.

In January 2009, ACPS surveyed its 9th through 12th grade students to collect data about how students access the Internet when they are away from school. Key findings include the following:

  • 24% of high school students do not have access to a home computer
  • Of the students with home computers, 48% reported only one computer in the home and 43% of these students share that computer with four or more people
  • 21% of students do not have landlines

In order to begin to address these issues, ACPS installed wireless access points around the city. Currently students can access the Internet without any additional wireless configuration at these sites:

  • Durant Center - 1605 Cameron St.
  • Mount Vernon Recreation Center - 2017 Belle View Blvd.
  • Ramsay Recreation Center - 5650 Sanger Ave.
  • Charles Barrett Recreation Center - 1115 Martha Custis Dr.
  • Patrick Henry Recreation Center - 4643 Taney Ave.
  • Community Lodgings - 607 Notabene Dr, #1
  • Cora Kelly Recreation Center - 3600 Commonwealth Ave.
  • Future sites include Charles Houston Recreation Center and Tenants and Workers United

All student laptops have a set of applications installed, including the full Microsoft Office Professional Suite, Adobe CS3 and a variety of instructional applications. Many of these applications have been installed as stand-alone systems, and can be used by students even when they are not connected to the ACPS network.

Printing is available to each student. While logged on to the ACPS network at T.C. Williams or Minnie Howard, at school or home, students can print to the help desk. As part of the T.C. Williams "Go Green" initiative, student printing has been configured as a "pull" printing system. Students print their documents and retrieve them at a central printing station on each campus. This process has significantly reduced the amount of wasted paper. Each student is provided an allotment of 125 pages a semester. However, all student requests for additional printing services are granted.

There are many electronic ways for the students and teachers to share and store work, turn in assignments and communicate with each other. Choices include shared folders on the school network, Blackboard and e-mail. Every high school student is provided an ACPS e-mail account.

Student Help Desks

Both the T.C. Williams High School King Street and Minnie Howard campuses have a student help desk on site. These help desks are staffed with Technology Services technicians whose primary function is to support the student laptop program. The help desks are available to students before school, during lunch, and after school. The student help desk at Minnie Howard is also available to students during the Teacher Advisory period (homeroom).

Since the laptops are essential tools, the student help desks make every effort to turn around repairs expeditiously. Technicians are instructed to make sure that a student's laptop is returned within 24 hours, or to provide a replacement. In the event that a laptop is out of commission, a loaner laptop is provided to students.

ACPS Academic Access

ACPS Academic Access (AAA) is a new Web-based service that enables parents and families to follow their student's academic progress throughout the school year. Parents and students can use AAA to view information about attendance, schedules and grades in one secure, easy-to-use Web site.

ACPS Network

While connected to the ACPS network, students have access to all school-based resources. These resources include network and Internet-based applications, student and teacher folders on the student server, and ACPS student resource printing. The ACPS student network at the secondary level is protected and filtered for content by a series of firewalls and filters. The content filtering addresses two concerns: 1) access to inappropriate material such as pornography, and 2) access to potentially damaging software such as peer-to-peer file sharing services.

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