Once upon a time in the late 1990s, there was a teacher in Lubbock, Texas, who had a dream. He dreamed that all the students in our schools could have their own personal computers to access information, communicate with others, and complete both assignments and projects required for classes at school. That teacher left the Lubbock Independent School District and went to work at Texas Tech University, in the College of Education, as their first Director of Distance Learning in 2001. A few years after starting that work as a university educational technology support specialist, that teacher learned about TxTIP, the “Texas Technology Immersion Pilot Project.” Thanks to the network assistance of colleagues and friends, that teacher wrote a grant which brought Apple iBook laptops to junior high school students and teachers in Floydada and Post, Texas.
Today that teacher (who is me, Wesley Fryer) found a couple old videos on a hard drive backed up in 2011, and shared those videos on YouTube. I also updated the West Texas TxTIP website I created back in 2008, fixing broken links to the original grant proposals and budgets I wrote / created. I added links to these videos as well as a few photos.
If you have connections to any of the students, teachers, administrators, Apple employees, or others included in these photos or videos, please let them know. They might enjoy this digital “blast from the past.”
In October 2024 this year, in just a few months, it will be the 20 year anniversary of this FIRST rollout of student laptops in the TxTIP grant project in Floydada. My how time flies.
I especially love the student voices in this second and longer video from February 2005. The male student, Ben, is SO empowered by the new role as “the technology expert” which he was able to realize as a result of this laptop initiative!
On a technical note, the audio in this second video was VERY quiet, so I exported just the audio (using QuickTime Player for MacOS) and then imported that file into the website Auphonic.com. I’ve used Auphonic a lot in the past to “normalize” podcast audio files, and I still had some credit time available. It did a GREAT job boosting and normalizing the audio from these interviews, which made a SIGNIFICANT improvement in the overall quality of this video. I’m so pleased with how it turned out!
“Audio Improved with Auphonic.com” (CC BY 2.0) by Wesley Fryer
As I recall, I checked our oldest child (Alex) out of his kindergarten class at Murfee Elementary School in Lubbock for the day on October 5, 2004, when the students at Floydada Junior High School received their iBook laptops. I wanted him to experience and witness this historic event with me.
Now Alex is a 27 year old robotics engineer working for Booze Allen Hamilton as a NASA contractor at the Johnson Space Center, leading the MAGIK team as they (among other things) conduct the pre-engineering analysis for all the uncrewed SpaceX missions resupplying the International Space Station. I wonder where some of those students in junior high school in Floydada and Post in 2004 are now? I bet they’ve gone to some amazing places and done some great things.
As teachers and dreamers, we make a difference.
“Wes Fryer and Alex Fryer in Houston, Tex” (CC BY 2.0) by Wesley Fryer
Source : Remembering TxTIP in Floydada and Post, Texas (2004-05)
