President's Report	by James McConville
Island Report	by Mike Ireland
Live and In Colour...From the Internet	by Wayne Ulian
Catalyst Conference May 12-13, 2006, Whistler, BC	by Kevin Ambroe
Classroom Jeopardy	by Jolene Mergens and Chris Rozitis
USB Flash Drives	by Dennis Wong
Web 2.0: An Educator's Guide	by James McConville
Demystifying Graduate Portfolios	by Shelley Wilcox
Online Discussions in Biology 12	by Tracy Kimoto
One to One Wireless Writing	by James McConville
CUE-Van Meeting April 27, 2006	by CUE-Van Executive
Fall Conference 2006: Teaching to the Multiple Literacies	by CUE Executive
Call for Presenters	by CUE Executive
Get Published: become a CUE newsletter contributor	by CUE Executive
Renewing your CUEBC membership	by James McConville

One to One wireless writing

By James McConville

As you undoubtedly know, many districts currently have laptop initiatives.  What I want to share with you is the unique characteristics of our program and how it is broadly supported by many of our district structures.  What is most important is that although it is a technology initiative, the primary focus of this project is to support and improve student writing.

In our district there are four schools that are part of this project.  They are all elementary schools that have one class of students at the grade four and five level.  In our district the schools that got the laptops are those with greatest proportion of vulnerable children as assessed using multiple sources of data.  The children who are least likely to be successful at school were given these tools.

In Coquitlam the children are given the computers on a permanent and ongoing basis for the school year.  They use them for at least 50% of their time during the school day and then they take the computer home with them each night.  The research shows that having the constant anytime, any place access, over time, changes not only how they think about writing, but how they think about all the Literacies.  The related Literacies are technological literacy, information literacy as well as writing literacy.

To provide support for the classroom teachers, everyone involved in this project is part of an Information and Communication Technology learning team that is facilitated by Dr. Sharon Jeroski and John Maschack from Apple Canada.  Meetings are held monthly throughout the school year in conjunction with Maple Ridge district which has a similar ongoing project.  Another unique characteristic of our program is the leadership involvement during the Learning Teams: all levels of the district are included  from our Manager of Technology to members of our senior leadership team to school principals to classroom teachers.

This project is important as it is about is the growth in technological Literacies of solving technical problems that naturally arise when working with computers.  These students are truly developing the skills and attitudes that are needed of all 21st century learners.

Some links to learn more about One to One Wireless Writing projects:

CUEBC is a member of The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and the article below is republished from the Journal of Research on Technology in Education:

http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Publications/JRTE/Issues/Volume_38/Number_3_Spring_2006/Implementation_and_Effects_Of_One-to-One_Computing_Initiatives_A_Research_Synthesis.htm

Peace River North’s Wireless Writing Project was one of the first in BC:

http://www.prn.bc.ca/Wireless_Writing_Program.html

BC Ministry of Education’s links to laptop initiatives:

http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/onetoone/desc.htm