One-to-One Computer Initiatives

Born in 1983, I'm kind of in-between Gen X and Gen Y (or the Millennials). Even though most of my colleagues are Gen X and my students are Gen Y, I identify more with Gen Y. I've had a computer for as long as I can remember and have been emailing since elementary school. I do remember actual encyclopedia books existing but I don't think I ever used one. We had a trusty Encarta CD by the time I was doing any kind of research for school.

So, yeah, I consider myself a digital native. And my first reaction is always to be excited about new technology and innovative approaches. But then my pragmatic side takes over as I think about actual applications of it and whether it will yield any better results than the former approach.

I'm very skeptical of online classes and think they only work for a narrow few situations (more on that in a future post). But on the other hand, I can't imagine teaching without a digital projector and some access to computers in my classroom. Currently, my school has public Wi-Fi for students, and students are encouraged to BYOD, but they don't all have one. Most of what they have are smartphones, with screens too small to do many things and too small for me to easily monitor what they are doing. Ideally, every student would have access to a computer (not a tablet) at all times.

And that brings me to a discussion of one-to-one technology initiatives in schools. I was reading "Districts Place High Priority on One-to-One Computing" from Education Week extolling the benefits of One-to-One and glossing over the myriad logistical problems: initial start-up cost, infrastructure costs to power and charge them all, costs to repair and replace damaged items, etc.

The article cites the Natick public school system in Massachusetts. They spent $1.8 million on Macbooks for all of the high school students. There isn't much hard data on the success of the program yet, just a vague comment about more students being on the honor roll and anecdotal evidence from teacher comments.

In fact, a quick Google search turned up no hard evidence. Maybe there is some out there? Leave it in the comments if you know of any.

The Auburn school system in Maine also tried a one-to-one program with kindergarten and the students that were given tablets outscored those without on all aspects of the district's literacy tests.

Awesome. Except no one pointed out the obvious reason for the success (probably because no one who was interviewed actually teaches students): the devices were cool. They were a motivational tool more than a real learning tool. Engagement went up because of the novelty.

So it seems like I'm arguing against these programs. But actually, I would LOVE for all of my students to have a laptop. As a Millennial, I find it more natural to learn that way. I feel like I am often adapting my lessons to fit the lack of computers. So for me, it would work out well. But even more than the hardware and infrastructure costs for these programs, the biggest problem is training teachers to think like Millennials and take full advantage of the resources.