I am writing from Jakarta International School where I am the new Director
of Technology this year. Here at JIS we are the process of developing a
plan for 1:1 implementation in our Middle and High Schools over the next tw=
o
years. One of the biggest questions we are grappling with right now is
whether to go with an approach where all students buy the same machine (or
perhaps at most 2 different kinds, one being Mac and one Windows to defuse
platform wars) in order to provide some consistency and equity in the
classroom, or whether to allow =93open-choice with minimal software
expectations,=94 meaning students can bring pretty much whatever they want =
as
long as it can perform certain functions we define. The latter approach is
definitely more appealing to folks with strong platform/brand/model
preferences and to those who have already purchased mobile computing
devices. The move of more and more applications to the cloud gives furthe=
r
weight to the =93open choice=94 approach, but unfortunately, our access to=
the
cloud is much more limited than in developed countries.
I realize there is no one-size-fits-all approach to 1:1 and that each schoo=
l
is different, but I=92d value insight from members of this group as we wres=
tle
with this decision. I=92m especially interested to know if any of you
currently have an =93open choice=94 1:1 model. Hope to hear from some of =
you.
Best,
Christina Devitt
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