Freedom to Learn has become a vehicle for all Michigan students to learn at their

level and increase achievement on an individual pace while staying competitive in the
global world. Beyond the everyday rigors of meeting curriculum standards, students need
to be taught about the technology and how to use it for it to be most effective in their
educational experience. Freedom to Learn has provided a barrier free learning
environment making it possible for all students to have exposure to the same means to
complete assigned tasks.
The barriers between students have been broken. Students who normally
outshined the others due to socioeconomic status are becoming the norm and do not stand
out as much because Freedom to Learn has provided the same amount of opportunity for
all of our students. Special needs and at-risk students are having greater success.
Because they now had the tools to express themselves, they began to thrive. The laptops
evened out the playing field. Students who had little interest and success in school are
more engaged; more motivated to try to learn and are feeling more self-confident.
Students who once gave up on themselves and created behavioral problems now have
passion for learning and opportunities to shine. Their behavioral problems have
decreased and students genuinely want to come to school. We found that it was
something about the interaction with the machines that increased student motivation and
consequently achievement.
Our gifted and talented kids, previously bored, now have no limits on their
assignments and their learning. We keep them reaching deeper and deeper into higher
level learning and understanding. If a student discovers a component that is interesting to
them, they have resources at their finger tips (laptops, software and wireless Internet) that
enable them to further research, learn and teach to their teachers and classmates. Signs of
struggle and frustrations of low academic students are no longer evident. At-risk students
who had difficulty expressing themselves on paper now use software to organize their
thoughts. Our average students who previously completed the bare minimum
requirements began to reach their potential.
Access to the technology has been the key component throughout the duration of
our program. Student access at our school has gone from 1:1 for a class of students to 1:1
for our entire middle and high school. The amount of work produced by our students
increased significantly compared to the months before the laptops entering our building.
Not only did the amount of topics covered increase, but the creativity and substance of
the students work was beyond compare. One downfall to technology is the fact that it
doesn’t always work and repairs can be plentiful when you have 240 machines floating
through a building. When we were providing 1:1 access for a class of students, we were
able to limit the amount of repairs and provide a spare laptop to those in repair. This has
not been an easy task since increasing 1:1 in to 240 students. This increase has
decreased our ability to constantly provide access for all students, and we are always
searching for ways to neutralize this problem.
In a recent study in our middle school, we found that of the 42 percent of late
assignments, 62 percent of them were from those students who did not have access to
technology due to either computer repairs or disciplinary actions. We also learned that
of our 29 percent of students who scored below average, 89 percent of those students
were those students that did not have access to technology for the same reasons listed
above.
 Student Work Comparison of Those With and Without Technology

100% 89%
90%
80%
70% 62%
60%
50% 42% Student Work Comparison
40% 29%
30% 20%
16%
20%
10%
0%
% of % of % of % of % of % of
students late students late students students students students
without scoring scoring scoring scoring
access to below below average average
technology average average without
without access to
access to technology
technology

Obviously, the large portion of motivation and ability to produce a better product
came from the use of technology. Finally, 16 percent of the students produced work
that was of average quality, and of that 16 percent, 20 percent of those students were
those without access to technology. This proves that students need meaningful
curriculum that is related to their lives.
We continue to follow the Michigan curriculum provided to us by the state and
are always looking for ways to improve our students’ achievement on standardized tests.
We attribute the laptops and the tools provided with them as a direct correlation to
increased student achievement on the MEAP test. One group of low achieving students
improved the English Language Arts MEAP scores by 40% compared to scores from two
years prior. This particular group of students had the same Language Arts teacher for
four consecutive years. In the time the tracking was done, the one major change in the
students’ education was the Freedom to Learn laptop.
Through proper integration, technology has increased student confidence and
quality of work leading to increased student achievement. The Freedom to Learn
program has provided both our students and teachers with the means to learn without
limits. Our students want to be at school, our teachers teach with more enthusiasm and
our school community is safe and inviting for all learners.

Sarah Harless and Amanda Harthun are middle school teachers at Bear Lake School.
They also serve as Freedom to Learn digital coaches and lead teachers.