Swampscott Public Schools uses a one-to-one device model that, according to Digital Learning Specialist Brandy Wilbur, allows teachers to focus more directly on student learning. With every student using the same device and having access to the same materials, teachers can ensure students stay on task.
The district emphasizes innovation at every grade level, from Makey Makeys and coding in the elementary schools to robotic pumpkin drops at the middle school, and an I-Lab space with tech ninjas at the high school. For staff, advanced uses of technology support equity, instructional integrity, and compliance with state testing requirements.
“It’s really customizing their experiences with the material,” Wilbur said. “Teachers are able to give students more choice on how they learn.
The one-to-one model also helps minimize distractions, Wilbur said, because students access resources through district-managed devices equipped with consistent software and blocks on non-instructional content.
Lytania Mackey, the district’s director of technology, digital learning, and innovation, even described the devices as “not an optional resource.” She said the program supports educational soundness and keeps classrooms centered on learning.
The computers also ensure accessible learning, Wilbur noted.
“It’s a huge game changer for people who need text-to-speech or magnification or a million different things that are available on the Chromebooks,” Wilbur said.
The one-on-one digital approach saves money as well, Wilbur added. Instead of buying a textbook for each student, teachers can share chapters online.
Looking ahead, artificial intelligence (AI) is at the forefront of many teachers’ minds.
“I’m working with a couple of teachers with some AI stuff,” Wilbur said. “I do a professional development in the district. It’s a three-part series for teaching teachers how to use AI for themselves and helping develop a policy for the district.”
Wilbur said she received her training through a CS Engage grant last summer, a course totaling two 10-hour days because “there’s a lot of information to come from it.”
There is currently a draft AI plan for the district, but Wilbur said teachers “didn’t really know enough yet to be able to suggest what should be in our policy.”
“I think because it’s in the news all of the time, people are thinking about it all the time and kids are using it willy-nilly,” Wilbur said. “So the teachers are interested in learning more about it, to be able to guide their students to use it the right way.”
Mackey said teachers “constantly ask for more” information so they can better support students in “this generation world.”
“We’re not replacing necessarily paper and pen at every opportunity because we are analog in so many ways that are really important for the brain connection,” Mackey said, “but in other ways if there’s something that they need for their future and it’s going to make them more competent out in the real world, we want to know that.”
There’s district-wide acknowledgement, Wilbur added, that students are already using AI at home. While AI tools are currently blocked on school devices, she said educators can still help students understand how AI can support brainstorming or walk them through a math problem rather than simply providing an answer with no context.
“We want to make sure the guardrails are there, but our job is to get these kids ready for the world when they leave here and AI’s becoming a huge part of that,” Wilbur said.
Mackey said it all comes down to making the district the best it can be.
“We have people who want to make it work, and they care,” Mackey said. “They want to be the best district and the most innovative district and a district where kids are proud to be coming from, that they graduate from here and it means something.”
