I am very, very grateful for all of the replies and perspectives shared so
far and I hope you keep them coming. To me, this listserv is a great
example of technology enriching learning.
To provide some context, this is now the 3rd time I have been part of
implementing 1:1 in over a decade, (the first time resulted in a x-platform
program, the most recent ended in a recommendation for the "bring your own"
approach) and each exploration has been unique in some respects. Every
iteration has involved establishing a vision and engaging teachers with PD.
That aspect of going 1:1 is no different this time. What *is* significantly
different this time around is limited access to the cloud, so that's
probably the main driver for my question.
I do think that going 1:1 gets easier every year -- technology in schools is
less of a lightening rod and there is more tolerance for the logistical
challenges the change presents. In my previous school and now at JIS, we
have sampled/are sampling our population regarding their ownership of
laptops and a high number of students already have their own, but curiously
*they* are the ones who choose *not* to bring them to school.
For our faculty, access is a key concern. Many are happy to start with the
ability to support writing and research in the classroom, and let more
innovative uses evolve. The question that keep arising, however, is how do
we resource the program in a way that will provide all students with the
opportunity to develop that "evolved," sophisticated digital fluency over
time, much like we focus on equity of access to quality curriculum. I know
the mantra "technology is just a tool," but we make choices about our tools
all of the time, including which ones to standardize and which to leave to
personal preference. If one of the most powerful benefits of a
tablet/laptop/netbook/PDA at one's fingertips is the ability to personalize
learning, then the "bring your own approach" still seems to make a lot of
sense.
Isn't it fun experiencing the evolution of the notion of school?
Thanks again for all of the insight!
Best,
Christina
ps - Hi Joel (what, I'm overthinking this? <smile>), Pam, Gary and other
friends lurking out there.
On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 4:13 AM, Pamela Livingston <livingstonp@mac.com>wrote:
> Dear Christina and ISED-L colleagues,
>
> I wanted to add a couple of things to this conversation. When interviewing
> teachers around the U.S. and overseas the overwhelming response has been "we
> would not want to go back to not using laptops." And when I surveyed
> students around the U.S. and 5 countries, over 700 responses so far, the
> overwhelming response has been "we want to learn with laptops." Also, back
> in May 2007 the New York Times reported on 5 laptop programs that were
> discontinued. Several colleagues and I independently looked into the
> schools mentioned and the commonality was 1. leadership was not behind the
> program 2. very little continual professional development of teachers ensued
> 3. tech support was cut back and nearly non-existent 4. little happened in
> the classroom other than note-taking (see 1,2,3) and 5. student expectations
> were not clear. What school-wide innovation or improvement initiative would
> survive 1,2,3,4 and 5?
>
> As to the platform/hardware issues, when I interviewed teachers/tech
> directors back in 2005/06 the word was "same platform/same model" and the
> reason was complexity of support. Now it might be different and the reason
> is "the cloud" plus any hardware manufacturer selling to schools absolutely
> should have an extended warranty - and ought to in some way give advice on
> damage or loss of equipment. I know before Jim Hendrixx went to the American
> School in London, he had multi-platform going quite successfully at the
> Oregon Episcopal.
>
> The Urban School/Howard Levin had a really interesting take on getting
> laptops. They polled their parents and asked who either devoted a computer
> to their child or was planning to do so. A really high percentage said yes
> they would. Urban School said let us buy the computers, let us load them
> with the applications, let us use them in the classroom, and one device will
> go from home to school. Howard gives some really cool presentations which
> include sample screenshots of how students customize their laptops with
> folders, colors, etc. because - they own the learning, the tool for
> learning, the structure, the access, the retrieval, the whole thing. It's
> not distributed and taken away for 40-60 minutes, it's theirs all the time.
>
> So I guess you can see where I stand on this (grin) and hi Joel, Gary,
> Christina, Peter, Alex and everyone by the way. It is always a pleasure by
> the way to interact with you all!
>
> Best regards,
> Pamela
> --------------------------------------
> Pamela Livingston
> http://www.1-to-1learning.blogspot.com
> http://www.pamelalivingston.com
> Author of "1-to-1 Learning: Laptop Programs That Work"
> Twitter: plivings
>
> -
>
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