University of Bath School of Education

The Pilot Laptop Programme at Markham College: changing the way of

teaching and learning.
Mariela Castro
MA in Education
Management of Innovation

Introduction
For more than ten years now there has been a move by a number of schools in Australia, and
more recently in Britain and the United States, to implement laptop programmes in schools by
which students are given a portable computer to ensure anytime-anywhere learning and help
them become independent, life-long learners preparing them for the demands of the twentyfirst century.
Markham College decided to start a similar programme of its own in the Upper School 1 as the
next step forward, having reached a technological plateau and in an attempt to further improve
academic standards and support its educational philosophy in an innovative way.
This paper tries to analyse the approach, implementation and outcomes of the laptop pilot
programme implemented by Markham College during 2001, taking into account staff, student
and parental perceptions.

Background
Markham College is a well established, privately owned, bilingual school in Lima, Peru which
is organized on British lines. It is a large school, with a student body of approximately 1600
students from pre-school to secondary level, having turned co-educational in 1992.
Up to December 2000, Markham retained the traditional model of teaching in a formal
classroom but seeking to cross subject and task boundaries in an attempt to produce young men
and women who can think critically and laterally. Its curriculum also tries to be broad and
flexible enough to enable students to work to their strengths, their interests and to their best
academic abilities, developing a methodology that is more pupil-centred with an emphasis on
skills rather than content.

Secondary section of the school

This model has proved successful when measured against international standards set by
examining boards such as Cambridge with its PET2, FCE3 and IGCSE4 examinations and the
International Baccalaureate examination which is widely recognised around the world as a
university entrance qualification. More than ninety percent pass the FCE, gain IGCSE grades
A-C and also gain immediate entry to university, either locally or abroad. Due to quality of
Markham graduates is that the school has the reputation of being considered as one of the best
in Latin America.
So, if this model was apparently working, why change it? According to Handy et Aiken (1986),
people push for change because they are dissatisfied and because organizations cannot stand
still either those that wish to thrive or even survive, have to change in tune with the society
around them.
Markham College is always striving to provide the best education and there was a feeling
amongst the Warden5 and a few senior staff that the school had reached its plateau in terms of
resources, staffing and academic achievement. A series of development plans had improved
buildings and classroom fittings, technology resources with state-of-the-art computer networks,
staff performance through a comprehensive professional development scheme and academic
and discipline standards within the whole school.
This lead to research into what other schools of similar category were doing around the world
and the answer appeared to be the anytime-anywhere learning system promoted by the use of
laptops in education.

The Information and Communications Technology Development Plan - The Way Ahead
While staff IT training courses have been running continuously since 1992, these have been
largely oriented towards skill acquisition rather than its use and application in the classroom.
Through the Markham IT Diploma, most staff became competent in the use of generic software
such as word processors, spreadsheets, graphic packages, presentation software and the
Internet. Integration of these tools into the teaching-learning process was happening but in a
limited way in a few subjects such as English and Science and not happening at all in other
subjects such as French or Art.
This might have given the Warden the impression that staff were sufficiently IT literate to
understand what was coming to them.

PET Preliminary English Test

FCE First Certificate in English
4
IGCSE International General Certificate of Secondary Education
5
Warden is the title given by tradition to the Headmaster at Markham
2
3

As Lewin (1967) proposed in his three-step model, he tried to create a readiness for change in
October 1998, with a presentation on the implications of the Information and Communications
Revolution for the school and the new way ahead that lied in front for everyone. He presented
Markham as a school of the future by which the traditional teaching-learning system
completely disappeared giving way to an educational model unthinkable in the Peruvian context
at that time: classrooms without walls, open and flexible timetables and distance learning
options.
In this way he thought that staff would feel challenged and excited to pursue this new path and
appointed staff committees to examine these implications. Probably due to the complexity,
lack of understanding and fear of the unknown, these committees felt overwhelmed and were
unable to get to grips with the issues. They had not heard of a similar model anywhere in the
country, needless to say in South America.
This first attempt to unfreeze the staff was not successful, largely because of the lack of a
clear and shared vision, and because there was a strong feeling that this change was being
imposed without them having had a voice in the decision. Murgatroyd and Morgan (1994)
underline the importance of presenting teachers with a feeling of choice rather than a take
it or leave it situation in order to be able to gain the levels of support and commitment
necessary to implement an innovation.
It seemed that only the Warden knew what he was trying to accomplish and staff did not feel
eager to take any risks. Murgatroyd and Morgan (1994) establish that risk-taking occurs
because teachers and administrators within the organization know what it is they are trying to
achieve and how these individual achievements will fit into the vision as a whole. As would
be expected, without a clarity of vision, they entered into a defensive retreat after the initial
shock, a stage clearly identified as a common response to enforced change, by Fink, Beak and
Taddeo (1971).

As a result, and in a second attempt to get through to the staff and gain their support, a scaled
back vision of the future was presented in March 1999 entitled The Third Development Plan
Where Now? In it the Warden tried to explain further the philosophy behind the revolution and
the reason for making this decision in a less shocking way, trying to adapt to Everard and
Morris (1990) systematic approach to change.
This document acknowledged the fact that schools tend to be slow in reacting to change and
that they generally developed intellectual awareness in the context of societys present
requirements rather than its future requirements. This is precisely what the Warden considered

necessary to change in order to make the difference. He took the line of Handy et Aiken (1986)
who stated that school systems need to consider this in the context of the young who will live
most of their lives in the twenty-first century in an age characterized by accelerating
change.

This revised plan identified four strands which needed to be addressed in terms of intellectual
awareness, to define the scenario for the coming years so that Markham students could cope
with these demands of the twenty-first century,:

The ability to think critically: analyse and discuss, synthesise and transform, experiment
and hypothesise, lateralise and create.

The ability to be life-long learners

The ability to work collaboratively

The ability to be self-starters, taking responsibility for their own work.

Even though teachers claimed that there was nothing new in these skills and that they were
already striving mightily towards them, the issue here was how successful they were and how
IT would make this even more successful because of the way in which students are learning at
present in a completely different way to how teachers learned at their time, as a result of the
technological developments which brought interactivity into a multimedia learning
environment.

Finally, it recognised the usefulness and appropriateness of IT and portable computers in

education by identifying its potential to:

Overcome the resource limits that textbooks impose on students

Provide

a powerful tool in terms of processing, organising and presenting their

information

Allow students to proceed at their own pace, in private and according to their enthusiasm
and mood.

Allow students to communicate instantly and world-wide with other children and/or
experts, teachers

Allow students to access and research the greatest amount of information accessible
world-wide via the Internet, and all this anytime, anywhere.

This document provided the philosophical justification of the Third Development Plan to
incorporate IT into Markhams teaching and learning schemes, using laptops as the main
instructional tool to bridge the existing gaps.
The schools vision finally took shape. By providing the Upper School students and staff with
their own laptop computer to allow them not only to gain access to information anytime,
anywhere, but also to integrate technology seamlessly into the learning process, it was the
managements initial perception that students would therefore be able to pursue individual paths
of learning and the school would provide a more practical, entertaining and integrated learning
environment where students would progress from being passive learners to active learners,
owners of their own learning process. This would obviously imply a rethinking of the place of
the school and the role of the teacher in the development of the individual throughout his or her
life as suggested by Handy et Aiken (1986, p 104) - a great challenge for everyone.

The Warden presented a three-year plan so that change could happen gradually, in a less
shocking way, determining the main areas of development and the people or teams responsible
to get the work done.

Plan Specifics
The plan that was laid down for the years 1999 2001 included the following stages:

the establishment of the schools Intranet6 to be shared by both sections of the school,
Primary and Secondary and which would provide access to the Learning Grid7, other
external resources, and to School academic and administrative information.

the incorporation of the use of technology into the teaching, creating an environment
in which laptop use could flourish by facilitating laptops for all teaching staff during
2000, investigating the practicalities of school-wide laptop use, increasing the training
and research support facility for staff, and running a pilot course in cross-curricular
studies as an exemplar for staff in the incorporation of technology into the curriculum.

Improving the overall efficiency with which the school systems work by reviewing /
upgrading the present resources and improving the planning, organisation and

An Intranet is a local web-based network of resources, accessible only to those belonging to the organisation.
The Learning Grid is a collection of academic resources, materials and activities aimed at supporting the
teaching-learning process.
7

maintenance by establishing a physical separation between IT Education and IT

Systems8, and providing adequate staffing.

Providing laptops for a group of students in the Upper School from S1 to S3 in March
2001 with the possibility of generalising to the rest of students depending on the results
of the pilot programmes evaluation.

The implementation of these stages required parallel planning processes within the Education
and Management areas.
The first stage consisted in:

The provision of staff training in the use of computers and the school systems.

The running of the Applied Technology course designed to place the school systems
under full test, examine the educational implications and outcomes of IT-based learning
and examine the demands made by IT-based learning on the traditional and only
averagely IT literate teacher.

Preliminary discussions with computer companies to determine the suitable

hardware/software combinations both in terms of laptops and the school systems.

The second stage involved:

Obtaining the Board of Governors approval in principle, based on rough estimates as to

costs and benefits for the introduction of laptops

Detailed discussions with a selected supplier of equipment, and detailed analysis of costbenefit of the package selected, including the educational benefits.

Discussions with government bodies, such as the Ministry of Education and SUNAT9,
with regards to possible exemptions from duties and sale tax under the proposal made
by the supplier to make it a more financially viable and attractive programme.

The third stage, the decision and sell phase, involved:

The scale and timing for laptop introduction to staff and students - staff in March 2000,
students in March 2001.

The further and thorough reorganisation and expansion of the school systems on the
basis of the external advice.

Prior to this plan, the academic IT Academic Department oversaw all aspects of IT at Markham, including
student education, staff training and systems management.
9
Tax control government body

The selling of the project to staff (1999), students and parents (early 2000), through
a series of presentations and surveys.

Seeking the Board of Governors final approval of the planned development

The practicalities of the programme launch for staff in 2000 and for students in 2001:
delivery dates, contracts and payments.

Further professional development through internally arranged courses and visiting

experts.

For staff in the Upper School it was to be mandatory to have a laptop as it was to
become a major working tool. The school was to provide these laptops at no cost and
the staff would keep them for as long as they worked for the school. This was a hit
amongst staff as the sole idea of possessing a laptop made them feel more favourably
towards the programme.
The aim of targeting students was to create a 5th Column at home, as advocated by
Lewin (1967), so that it would be easier to sell the idea to parents later on. The
programme was to be sold as a voluntary option to students and parents as they would
have to pay a technological fee of US$50.00 a month, on top of the existing school fee,
to cover for the cost of the laptop and other related expenses.

Parallel to these phases, Heads of Department were asked to be active in their own research as
to the application of IT in teaching and learning, and to start the planning as to how the might
integrate technology into their teaching, rewriting their syllabuses and schemes of work to
reflect this. They were also asked to look at how much material would need to be internally
developed and how much might be externally acquired or downloaded material; and to develop
strategies for sharing the material preparation burden that the use of new technologies were
likely to place on them.

Also, within the Education area, a new post of responsibility was created: the IT Co-ordinator;
whose responsibilities would include amongst others, the research about technologically
oriented education, observing examples of technologically advanced schools, making contact
with experts in the incorporation of technology into teaching and learning, arranging for
adequate staff in-service training sessions, and working closely with Heads of Department so
as to monitor the extent to which they are incorporating IT into their syllabuses.

The Systems Manager, in close liaison with the IT Coordinator, had the responsibility of
purchasing the selected hardware and software suite, and implementing and maintaining the
school systems and wireless network in optimum conditions to support the programme. His
section would also be responsible for laptop maintenance and repairs with external support from
the providers.

The Senior Management area had the responsibility to look into how IT could be used to
improve the academic and administrative management right across the school, by analysing the
present systems and procedures, providing a list of procedures and/or routines which could be
computerised and a time plan for these developments, seeking to build a comprehensive Intranet
useful to staff, student and parents.

The Outcomes
Even though there were initial problems at the decision stage due to a lack of understanding of
the nature and potency of change, these were successfully ironed-out in the second attempt. The
vision was finally made clear and understood by the staff so that the needs to close the existing
gaps between where the school was and where it wanted to be in the coming years were clearly
identified.

From my experience and point of view as a teacher, the rates of success and relative failure of
the implementation of this innovation have been varied due to several reasons. These issues
have been grouped by categories and in no particular order:

The Selling of the Programme

After the initial hitches, the selling of the programme to staff was successful with the change in
method and strategy adopted by the Warden. The fact that they were receiving a laptop for
free helped in gaining the necessary vital support.
Students received the idea very enthusiastically but a few voiced concerns over equity issues.
What if my parents cant afford to have me in the program? Will I become discriminated by
not having a laptop? This issue was actually overlooked by the Warden who thought that in the
end it wouldnt become an issue at all.
However, he was proven wrong and the worst reaction came from the parents. When the plan
was presented to them, it was almost a take it or leave it situation and a large number of parents
resented this. They even resented the idea of the Warden having used the children as a 5 th

Column. The major concerns raised at the presentation were about the possibility of social
discrimination between the Haves / Have-Nots, the financial arrangements at a time of
uncertainty in both, Peruvian and global economies, and the security. Some parents feared that
their children would be subject to kidnapping, mugging or assault just to get hold of the very
expensive device.
A few others had no observations to the programme and decided to join straight away.
In the same way as it happened for staff in the first presentation, the message was not
successfully delivered to all parents, in a way in which they would not think of this programme
as a threat or an imposition at that particular time in the Peruvian socio-economic situation in
2000. However, despite all these parental concerns, more than fifty percent in each year group
joined the pilot programme, with enthusiasm, expectation and fear of the unknown too.

Staff Issues
Handing laptops to staff a year before handing them to students was a good idea as staff had a
whole year to gain confidence in the use of this technology and had time to master the necessary
IT skills in order to produce the material necessary to populate the Intranet. However, training
in this respect resulted insufficient and some staff were not quite sure about what was expected
from them. Also, the very tight timetable worked against staff finding the time to generate the
resources and get really involved in the programme. Obviously this did not help in achieving
the desired results of populating the Intranet with appropriate material by the end of 2000 as
the Warden expected.
Even though support staff was available at the CSF Education10 area, the real avalanche of work
occurred during the January - February 2001 holidays when staff were under a lot of pressure
to get things going by March 2001. This was counterproductive as part of the initial enthusiasm
and commitment dwindled due to the added stress. The general attitude seemed to be that of
lying in the comfort zone if it works, why change it, especially if it was going to demand
more work.
A few enthusiastic staff managed to spark the fire and designed some interesting ideas which
pulled some other staff into the pool but not to the desired extent. They created a large repository
of resources and links, downloading materials from the Internet as well as creating a large bank

10

Central Service Facility Education: area conformed by the IT Coordinator and two Intranet Developers,
dedicated to the design, production and publication of educational resources on the Intranet.

of useful mirror site links11. While many resources have been developed and placed on the
Intranet, appropriate use of these resources still had to be refined.

In terms of classroom management techniques there seemed to be a need for teachers to take
on a more active and dynamic role rather than just sitting in front of their laptops. The
development of group work and discussion practice was also found to be needed to support a
greater effectiveness in terms of anytime-anywhere use.

Resources
The laptops chosen for students were quite big and heavy but were stable and powerful.
However, it had a design flaw as the location for the wireless card made it vulnerable to damage.
Several cases of broken or bent cards were reported throughout 2001.
The design and quality of the carry bag for students was also a major drawback as it did not
provide enough protection, especially to the wireless card and the adapters. Cards would bend
and adapter cords would break with the pressure of the bag when being carried around. The
carry pouch was relatively cheap12 and not enough thought and importance was given to this
item unfortunately as it was seen as a programme freebie.
The wireless infrastructure worked well in 2000 with staff laptops but when the student pilot
began there was a two-week period of technical and connectivity problems which caused initial
frustration amongst staff and students. This was finally solved with an upgrade on the wireless
access points firmware.

The Internet access was also adequate in 2000 but became very slow in 2001 with the additional
246 student laptops. The uncontrolled downloading of software, music and videos created
frustrating bottle-necks during class time which lead to the rethinking of the policy of filtering
and monitoring Internet access. By the end of the first year, the band-width problem had not
been solved yet, despite the efforts to educate students in the responsible use of the services so
as to guarantee its use only for educational purposes.

Educational issues
By the end of the first year it was much too soon to evaluate to what extent academic standards
have improved, or indeed if they have improved much at all yet. In the IGCSE year groups it
11

A mirror site is an off-line copy of a web site so that the content can be accessed locally thus saving use of
Internet band-width
12
US$ 10.00 per unit

was also much too soon to evaluate the gains and losses for these examination classes as the
pilot programme hasnt been going long enough to cover both years and obtain any significant
examination results. A quick grade analysis showed that the academic standards towards the
end of the first academic bimester were much the same as in any other year prior to the laptop
programme, with a slight drop in grades A towards the Bs and Cs.
S1 Letter Grade Analysis 2000 vs. 2001
1400
1200
1000
800

2001

600

2000

400
200
0
A

S2 Letter Grade Analysis 2000 vs. 2001

1200
1000
800
2001

600

2000

400
200
0
A

S3 Letter Grade Analysis 2000 vs. 2001

1000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0

2001
2000

But this cannot be conclusive as the pilot only considered around 50% of students in each year
and the spread of top, middle and bottoms set students in the laptop and non-laptop groups were
not even in each year.
It also showed that the higher ability students continued to excel while the lower ability pupils
struggled to get organized with the new tool.

From surveys circulated to parents, students and staff the following benefits and drawbacks
were identified throughout the first few months of implementation:

Perceived benefits: improvement in,

computer and IT skills generally,

organisational skills13,

students driving their own learning,

enthusiasm and motivation to learn,

presentation skills,

peer collaboration skills,

availability of administrative and academic information, through the Intranet,

communications between school and home, again through the Intranet.

Perceived drawbacks:

Distraction some students drawn too readily into content other than what is required
of them in the current lesson

Student carelessness, causing damage or loss of laptops or components

Weight of laptops 3kg plus books, sports gear, and personal items

Security issues, both internal and external

Battery life though multi-plug facilities installed in each room

Cost of the present scheme, compared with benefits thus far

Difficulty in studying from the screen.

Whilst the programme claims to support students with independence in learning, it was not
clear that students knew how to do this. Intentions for use of the laptops outside lessons by
students were also not made clear to them. It seemed that staff were still doing most of the work
13

Even though it may sound contradictory to the initial statement, those pupils struggling to get organized were
acquiring a new skill which they didnt have before. Higher ability students reinforced their organizational skills.

leaving little for the students to do themselves, they were still being spoon-fed but in a digital
way. Little or no evidence of students work on the Intranet for parents, students or staff, to see
results supports this statement.

Another issue that emerged was that the work of the IT department was not co-ordinated with
the needs of subject departments and students in terms of their needs and abilities to use
software on the laptops. Some teachers expected students to be able to use certain software
packages, but the students may have learned about these some time prior to this need arising in
class, or may not have seen it at all. A greater co-ordination between IT department provision
and subject department use, is required to deal with this issue.

Conclusions
It is clear from the described outcomes that the stated intentions for the pilot programme have
not yet been entirely fulfilled. Even though the innovation tool - the laptop - was introduced as
planned, change in the teaching and learning approaches did not occur as expected, partly due
to a lack of appropriate staff development and partly due to the lack of time provision for staff
to be able to develop material, test it and feel comfortable with its use and application in the
classroom.
However, as in any pilot programme, the evaluation of the first year has been helpful in
identifying the areas of improvement which can lead to an effective implementation in the
coming years. None of the perceived drawbacks are condemning the programme to failure,
quite the opposite, these are all manageable. The benefits also outweigh the drawbacks and for
this reason is that the programme will continue with the required changes needed in order to
address the number of issues mentioned in this paper.
As suggested by Hord et al. (1987) it is now time continue with the next levels of use of an
innovation: review, integrate and renew. The Senior Management must look into ways of
regaining staff commitment, support and enthusiasm for the programme so that they can have
a feeling of ownership and a sense of pride of their accomplishments. This can be accomplished
through a change of strategy and a comprehensive staff development programme so that staff
can meet the goals and demands of this innovation.

Words: 4302

References
Handy C and Aitken R (1986), Understanding Schools as Organisations, Harmondsworth,
Penguin

Hord, S. M., Rutherford, William L., Huling-Austin, Leslie and Hall, G. E. (1987). Taking
charge of change. Austin, TX: Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.

Murgatroyd S and Morgan C (1994), Total Quality Management and the School, Milton
Keynes, Open University Press
University of Bath School of Education (1997), Management of Innovation Course Notes

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