Sentiments On Common Sense

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I don’t often get a chance to quote Arnold Schwarzenegger but I will today. This from an edweek.org article:

“How can kids compete in the global economy when the information the schools feed them is stale and is outdated and is old?

Then, while minding my own business at home on a lovely Saturday in Shanghai, one of the teachers at our school sent me this link to an article stating that 1:1 programs are only as good as their teachers. The article titled, “One to One computing programs only as effective as their teacher” by Meris Stansbury states that:

Not surprisingly, the researchers say the most important factor of all is the teaching practices of instructors—suggesting school laptop programs are only as effective as the teachers who apply them.

Let’s apply some common sense here:

1.  Students need up to date resources.  Not “stale” or “outdated” ones.
2.  Students need effective teachers with effective teaching practices.

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Again, not surprisingly The authors of the Texas study conclude:

“Respondents at higher implementing schools reported that committed leaders, thorough planning, teacher buy-in, preliminary professional development for teachers, and a commitment to the transformation of student learning were keys to their successful implementation” of the state’s Technology Immersion Project.

Let’s add another layer of common sense:

1.  Students need up to date resources.  Not “stale” or “outdated” ones.
2.  Students need effective teachers with effective teaching practices.
3. COMMITTED LEADERS!

Another educator listed in the same article states:

“In our 1-to-1 program … we put a big emphasis on project-based learning; otherwise, the laptop is no more than an expensive notepad. … Research needs to show the effects of this different style of teaching in terms of student engagement, motivation, and so-called 21st-century skills. The subject matters themselves don’t have as much room for improvement,”

Ok…once again,some common sense here:

1.  Students need up to date resources.  Not “stale” or “outdated” ones.
2.  Students need effective teachers with effective teaching practices.
3. COMMITTED LEADERS!
4.  STUDENT CENTERED learning approaches.

Then they state in the article:

Given the importance of teachers in the success of school laptop initiatives, it’s no surprise that “teacher preparation through [ongoing professional development] was important for successful implementation,” write Bebell and O’Dwyer. “As 1-to-1 programs become more popular, the quality and depth of preparation that teachers receive for implementation will become a central predictor of program success.”

They go on to say:

“Buying laptops is the easiest part of the process, but too often school districts neglect such fundamental items as providing initial and ongoing professional development for the teachers and providing sufficient tech support,” Thompson said. “Taking a true TCO [total cost of ownership] approach would avoid many of the mistakes, as schools often do not have a good grasp of the real costs of starting and continuing a 1-to-1 program. And part of the TCO approach should be setting measurable program objectives and then doing formative and summative program evaluations, whose results are made known to everyone to provide a feedback loop in the continuous planning and re-planning that characterizes successful programs.”

I probably will have to stop here but… some more common sense:

1.  Students need up to date resources.  Not “stale” or “outdated” ones.
2.  Students need effective teachers with effective teaching practices.
3. COMMITTED LEADERS!
4.  STUDENT CENTERED learning approaches.
5. ONGOING Professional Development!

Schools moving to a 1:1 program needs to read this article. It is a great summary of issues. I believe I have only scratched the surface.

In closing, I draw your attention to a quote from Tammy Stephens, CEO of the Stephens Group LLC, a private investment firm, is working on a dissertation that focuses on the evolution of transformational communication patterns in 1-to-1 computing environments. She has been evaluating a 1-to-1 program in the Milwaukee Public Schools for the past three years.

According to Stephens, changing teaching practices to incorporate 21st-century skills with laptops “is definitely an evolution, and it takes time for teacher practices to evolve.”

Technorati Tags: 1:1, PD, Professional Development, resources, teachers, k-12, leadership, eschoolnews,

I finally got around to reading Scott McCleod’s blog post “Notes from India – I’m not sure you appreciate…” which he wrote on the 18th of March. As an non-international educator, poor Scott sometimes gets the usual push back from my colleagues and peers working in international schools around the world. His time at the American School of Bombay, it seems, is no different that most.  Many of the international school educators think we are ahead of the stateside schools or national schools from where we come from, and our friend and colleague Scott points out in his own way that it is really not about being ahead of the pack, but instead it is about where you are going. In his blog post he paraphrases his statement in his 3 minute wrap up presentation:

One of the participants in my morning session said that I didn’t appreciate how far along you all are and that you are way above average when it comes to integrating technology into your instruction. And yet, from my conversations with many of you over the past few days, it’s very clear to me that there still are many things you’re not doing. For example, most of you have yet to put a computer in every kid’s hands; that’s why you’re here at this 1:1 conference. Most of you have yet to incorporate online courses into your curricula in any kind of substantive way. Few of you are teaching students to be empowered – not just responsible – digital citizens in our new information landscape. Few of you have a staff full of educators that are modeling active participation in that landscape. As far as I can tell, none of you has robust student assessments at every grade level that target higher-level, more cognitively-complex thinking and doing and being. None of you has moved to a truly personalized learning environment for every student, one in which students’ progress is facilitated and perhaps assessed by technology and is organized around student competence and completion rather than age and grade level. So some of you are sitting there in the audience feeling pretty good about yourselves. And you should. You’re blessed with wonderful financial resources, fantastic facilities, and amazing faculty. But for those of you who think I don’t appreciate how far along you are, all I can say is that I’m not sure you appreciate how far you still have to go.

Good, strong, progressive leadership requires that we keep our eye ahead, with our mind filled with the lessons of the past.  To pause, revel or rest on our successes will send a clear message to our communities that there is an end to this educational journey, and once arrived, the work will be done. Those of you will a full ounce of common sense will know at a gut level that there is no end, only another step to further challenge ourselves and our students to learn, grow and engage in an ever changing landscape for learning.Thanks Scott for holding us accountable and providing us some thinking points for our road ahead. Here is Scott’s TedxASB speech. A good one if you ask me!

Technorati Tags: scott mcleod, Dangerously Irrelevant, Digital Learning environments, international schools, ASB Unplugged

Photo courtesy of www.zoo-m.com/flickrstorm seach keywords “road ahead” and http://www.flickr.com/photos/14438701@N00/3389991715

This entry has been cross posted to LeaderTalk.

As I work this academic year in rolling out a 1:1 program, I have thought long and hard about the next steps after the initial “out of the box” experience has worn off and the machines find their place in the daily lives of the students and their teachers.  Now in month 6 of the implementation, I am faced with some decision making about the next steps to drive home the initial success of our program.  Success, in this case, is a feel of “normalcy” around the school with technology.  The networks is working well. Service centers are up and running.  Teachers expect things to work most of the time and indeed, I think they do.  They are also meeting the daily challenge of using the machines in activities and units daily.  Technology standards are being met more readily.  Students are expecting to use their machines for projects, research, lessons in all subject areas.  Again… the normalcy of the implementation is beginning to set in.

Most recently though I  have struggled just a bit with the integration of the walk through protocols we have established at our school and the clear, consistent identification of quality technology use by teachers and students.  I believe that many administrators and supervisors are still struggling with clarity around the NETS-S and NETS-T and the identification of specific examples where and when the standards are being implemented in classrooms.  To the neophyte technology user, any technology use must be good technology use. We all know this is wrong!

I will be rolling out for my leadership team this next week the ISTE Classroom Observation Tool (ICOT). We will have them share specific examples of the “look-for” clues are to determine appropriate, strong and progressive use of technology in our classrooms.  We will do side-by-side walkthroughs to develop our common understandings around the use of this very useful framework.  It should be noted that the ICOT tool online is currently out of date as ISTE has not updated it for the updated NETS-T but that is an easy trade off for the other parts of the tool, and I (heaven forbid) even PRINTED it out for them to look at, pull apart and examine the sheer genius that is this observation tool.

The tool asks the observer to evaluate:

• the physical layout of the room
• student groupings
• the role the teacher is playing
• learning activities that are being used
• the essentiality of technology to the activity or lesson
• the specific technology tools being used by the teacher
• the specific technology tools being used by the students
• The NETS-Teachers being addressed (see attached)
• Total time for technology use during the walkthrough and…

A Three Minute Chart is provided to track technology:

• Use by Students (For learning or not?)
• Use by Teacher (for learning or not?)

I believe this framework has tremendous potential to help educational leaders as we learn to train our eye to the key components of technology use in our classrooms and make it possible for us to more effectively lead technology integration at our school.  In the course of classroom observations school leaders make hundreds, if not thousands of professional judgments every week.  This tool guides the user to structure those judgments more precisely and I also believe that over time the administrators will be able to use this information to make technology expectations more ubiquitous in our organization and judgments based on data gathered over time.

The fact is that we are at the point next academic year where the communication of expectations for teachers in the use of technology is going to be more important that the actual implementation and training of the use of technology tools.  It is obvious that we have got to ramp up our expectations (with continued, persistent, consistent and insistent professional development support) or we will plateau and that could sound the death knell for our 1:1 program.  Value added results are expected and if we don’t deliver the program is done.

As part of the increase in expectations, I am hoping that next year we can do an all out ICOT observation month to gather school wide data for technology use in our classrooms.  This will indeed bring forward the power of the NETS-A, and show the school the importance of implementation attention for systematic improvement, visionary leadership and a focus on professional practice.

Technorati Tags: tech plan, implementation, PD, proD, professional development, 1:1, technology

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Dispatch from the Road: Shanghai, Jin Qiao, January 13, 2010.  My first posting of the new year and new decade.
I have fallen a bit off the blogging wagon as of late, and need to step it up a bit more again.  This reflection habit keeps me a bit more balanced.  Shanghai winter is upon us and the dashboard says 30 degree F. / -1 C as I look over my driver’s shoulder.  Brrr….

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Ok… you have to admit. You have toys in your house.  No matter what you do. No matter how old you are, you have toys!

One of my colleagues has an unfortunate addiction to golf clubs.  He has about 5 sets in his garage right next to his motorcycle and beer fridge.  All of these items he refers to as his toys. Another colleague loves woodworking and has an admirable set of woodworking tools that he refers to has his toys.  My toys have, in recent years, been computers.  I practically wore out a Macbook Pro keyboard by using it for both my amusement and my work for two consecutive years.  Does the fact that I used the computer for fun and entertainment make it less valuable as a tool for work, for my own efficiency and my own learning?  Other “toys” I have are sharp knives in my kitchen, great bowls for cooking, a turkey rack (see photo) and even that cute little metal thingy that I use to lace my poultry for quality cooking results.  All “toys” that I use to create, and enjoy!

I sit in the car this afternoon reflecting (no stewing) over an email I received from a community member stating that some people believe that technology tools — computers — have provided students with toys but “many” wonder about the buy back in terms of student learning.  The fact is that the students are, in our 1:1 program, really enjoying having full, unfettered use of their computers.  I believe the same holds true with the teachers.  The students have loaded on their own music, began building their own photo libraries. They have added bookmarks, tabs and links to the multiple browsers they use on their machines.  The really like their computers and have “fun” using them to learn, to communicate (formally and informally). They use them to create artwork, movies, podcasts, reports and documents. They use them to research, learn, comprehend and create new understandings about their world.  In short, it is a great learning toy… er… tool.

Applying a measure of common sense here, I believe that any school worth its salt would certainly choose to have students use tools they like and can customize to be their own, or not.

Using the argument about the “return on the investment”, I would argue the schools that choose the tools that are usable, motivational, fun and engaging get far more return on their investment than those who choose tools that are arduous, annoying, hard to use, not engaging (read boring here!) and laborious. Are we not here to get kids to engage deeply, passionately and with great fervor?

Thoughts?

Technorati Tags: students and computers, laptop programs, toys, tools, learning

In my last post, I noted that I’d been saving this bookmark in my computer for quite a while.  Sean Nash from the blog nashworld wrote in July about the “Four Pillars of Technology Integration.” I wrote last week about our experiences with our Challenge Based Learning workshops that we were hosting in the month of September.  Today, I would like to explore the ideas that Sean has written about focusing on “Unfiltered, Ubiquitous Access”.

Sean spends a lot of time and lines writing about the requirements of the law in his state. The US has a lot of people telling each other what kids should and could see in their school networks, all the while the little darlings are going home and REALLY wanting to explore those sites because there are adults who have told them NOT to go there. Sigh… same story now as it was in the old days when boys would cruise the magazine racks for the occasional adult reading material so easily in their reach and so easily accessible.  Same holds true today.  But… that is not what I want to reflect on here.   Instead I would like to write about Sean’s comments around the ubiquity of the tools that may or may not be blocked in his district. The fact is that we all have a goal in our technology implementations that Sean describes so well.  He states:

Soon after access is all around you, it doesn’t even feel like “technology,” it just feels like the way things are done.  This is a good thing, for when technology becomes invisible, we can finally focus on the value added from new uses of these tools.  The world is moving quickly toward wireless access in all corners.

In my schools, we are now operating on a new wireless network and finding that it has freed us up in so many new ways.  Truthfully, the power of this tool alone is worth the price of educational admission at most schools, where roaming bands of learners find that access is found in any corner of the campus. We worked to ensure that the access is fully realized in the fields, cafeterias, student lounges and playgrounds with the realization that we need to have access where the students are located and stop worrying so much about locating the students in a lab or classroom.  By developing that freedom of space, you also free up the time of your community to learn and grow in any space and at any time.

Ultimately though it does come down to getting the machines in the hands of the students.  Sean writes:

If your school isn’t at a 1:1 ratio of students to laptop computers… and the students don’t take them home with them night by night, all year long… then you don’t yet have an ideal learning environment for 2009 in my opinion.

If you are a regular reader of my blog then you know how I feel.  Frankly speaking, I believe I have staked a lot of my career on the belief that a learner needs the tools of thought, voice, action and deed.  For a construction worker a shovel may be the tool of his trade, or another it may be a ruler, level or even his voice. For a learner, the tool of information access, information creation and information processing is currently a laptop computer. I cannot even imagine getting my work done without it.  I also have to ask how a student can get through school without the tool that virtually every adult uses day in and day out. Computers, whether on a desk or in a bag, are here to stay and getting more and more accessible each and every day.

In our CBL workshops we spend some time talking about the effects that the computers in each student’s hands will have on the working relationship that teachers and students develop over time.  The fact is that by giving students access like a laptop will certain democratize and “flatten” the social structure of a classroom. All of a sudden the teacher is not the ONLY resource to student for knowledge and in fact, the knowledge held in the head of an instructor may be “dated” or even wrong.  This, of course, moves all conversations to classroom management.  Frankly speaking I have been struggling finding resources for teachers on classroom management that will make them feel empowered and more comfortable.  Some of the more sage instructors will tell me (and their colleagues) that “good classroom management is good classroom management, laptops or not”. 
While I want to believe that is mostly true, I do think there will be some “figuring out” how to make it all work.  Thanks to my friend Blair Peterson, I was sent to the Friday Institute for Educational Innovations which is coordinating a study of 1:1 classrooms in North Carolina.  I found some great resources there and a great NING that is growing up and taking shape.  Take a look!

Laptop Friendly photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/81374383@N00/521630871
Technorati Tags: FIEI, Friday Institute of Educational Innovations, 1:1, Unfiltered Access, Ubiquitious Access

I don’t often write about the technology work that is going on in my school as it feels a bit inappropriate to me to do so here, but I could not resist it this time. Amanda DeCardy, my wife is a technology integration specialist and the 8th grade team at her school just completed a wonderful integrated unit called “Heritage Project”.

Amanda writes on her school blog “From the Outside Looking in…” that

Over and over again, students made connections that ran deep into their heritage.  They were insightful young adults and definitely are making their first steps towards becoming high school students.  It always seems to happen around January and this project is proof of their growth throughout this unit of study.

This video struck me as such a wonderful integration of reading, writing, listening, speaking, research, as well as recognizing the human component that makes such a project so engaging for early adolescents.  Congratulations to this team and please go and check out this school’s blogs! They are doing great things!

I dream of the day when kids have full access to network services an usable computers to make this type of creativity available!

Heritage Project, Outside Looking In…, Amanda DeCardy, SAS, Shanghai American School, Pudong Middle School

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It was a good holiday for me this year. My lovely wife got me a new camera, so that means more of my photos on this blog this year and less from others. Probably more photos of my kids, and of a few of my trips here and there. I am back on the road at the end of this month to go recruiting again, and for those of you who are going to be in Iowa for the UNI fair or the Search Fair in Cambridge, please come up and say hi. After returning to Shanghai after being at the clear, clean and cold Pacific Northwest, Shanghai feels exceptionally gray, cold and… well… HUGE! My car ride to the Puxi campus felt as if it took forever and now on the way home, even longer.

Last week I was reading about how the new President’s stimulus package had money earmarked for educational technology support for schools in the US. My colleagues in the US seem to be optimistic about hopes for building better, more technologically “ready” schools. I have worked through a rather long process of organizing, designing and now building a new network infrastructure at my school this past year and a half.

It is not as easy as it sounds, and the pitfalls and processes that are involved are staggering, but I feel the time, energy and money expended will all be worth it. After all, you can’t have the kids use the superhighway of information in the classrooms without high speed on-ramps.

Things to consider:

• Quality consultations. My advice is don’t rely on resellers and industry “leaders” to provide you with solutions. Allow yourself the luxury of a person you can trust that can lead you through the process.
• Community support. Until the community, from the top to the bottom believe it is needed, you will not find your way to building this infrastructure. They must see the results in the way they source their information.
• Look at “add-ons” in a different way. Most schools don’t consider what a strong network solution can do for them in other ways. We are also adding a new phone system, security system and intercom system, all using the network system as the backbone. New technology solutions allow so much more to be driven over by power-over-ethernet (POE). The four for one deal seemed to good to be true for my community.
• Build your sandbox first. With the help of your technology leaders, build sandboxes for the students and staff to play in—such as video sharing installations, blogging installations, social media installations – all within our network. As you sell the idea of the network, demonstrate that you and your team are doing all you can to exploit what you have and connecting it all to curricular objectives.
• Don’t be afraid to demonstrate how slow your network really is for the kids. There is nothing like a failed network or a sssslllloooowwww network to show how painful waiting for information is for the kids. Pull up a webpage in front of a 100 people in an audience and then talk through what that is like for a teacher with 20+ kids in a classroom.
• Focus on expandable wireless options. Push your providers to SHOW you the options for the future and make them demonstrate it for your community. You will need to expand your network in the short term and I am guessing that wires will be the last way most of us will consider networking in the future. If Moore’s Law continues, then we may be looking at low cost expansions using plug and play wireless access points in the future.
• Allow your parents to have access to the old network. Promise them continued access to the “new” network. Hold open network mornings for Moms and Dads so they can see what can and cannot be done.

After you are done with the installation, focus your efforts on the use of your network and SHOW results. If you don’t, you won’t get anything else you ever ask for in the future.

Photo courtesy of CC: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8816624@N08/2899553904

technology infrastructure, wireless networks, educational technology, digital leadership

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My colleague and friend at International School of Bangkok, Mr. Jeff Utecht, invited me to collaborate on a list of interview questions that administrators might consider asking teaching candidates as they move to job fairs.  My school, like many in Asia and the world are planning the big move to 1:1 computing and beyond the preparations for the teachers we have on contract using an aggressive staff development model, we also must have strong new teachers to come on board and make it happen as well.

Jeff came to me last year with a list of questions which I thought were well thought out. I’ve written about the international school recruiting experience in the past. So it seems fitting that I post these questions that Jeff and I worked up (more him than me!) via a google doc.

So… here are the questions. I have attached the PDF for downloading below.

Questions for teachers entering a 1:1 school

What computer platform are you most comfortable with, Mac, PC or Tablet?
I think this is an important question as schools become focused on a platform. It’s not an indication of whether or not you are going to hire the person, but their answer to this question based on what your school is (Mac, PC, or Tablet) might lead you to ask other questions about their computer use. If they are most comfortable with a Mac for example you might ask them how they would feel working in a PC school? At this point in time I think it’s a question that you have to get on the table early so you each know where the other is coming from.

Why do you want to work in a 1:1 school?
In my opinion the answer to this question is crucial! I’m looking for excitement in their response. I’m looking for them to be excited at the opportunity that they get to teach in a 1:1 school. I think the answers are going to be all over the board, but are they excited? At some point hopefully they talk about enhancing student learning.

What particular challenges and learning opportunities excite you about working in a 1:1 school like ours?
Can the candidate articulate why they are excited to work at your school? Why do they see 1:1 schools as being exciting places to work. I would be looking for an answer that talks about changing the classroom environment. Changing the way teaching happens and the way learners learn. I want to hear about the opportunities that the candidate sees for their classroom and their subject area.

Being able to look up information and resources on the web is an important skill. Explain how you go about looking up information on the web. How do you verify that the information you found is trustworthy and of use to you and your students?
This question is asked to see if candidates understand the importance of verifying information found on the Internet. Do they understand .edu sites? Do they know how to check a WHOIS? Listen to their response and see if they can tell you how they verify information on the web and do they sound confident enough that they could teach this to students in their class?

Knowing we are a 1:1 school and that we expect students to use their laptops for learning. What is something that you would start learning and thinking about today to prepare you for this new learning environment?
I want to know they are thinking about the change that happens to the classroom when you introduce a computer to every child. Are they thinking about classroom management, are they thinking about online resources, are they thinking about how their class can be student-centered, how when you put this tool in the hands of students that you no longer control the content in your classroom and you, the teacher have just become a facilitator of learning. I want to know they are thinking about the changes that happen to learning. If they say that teaching is teaching, I’d be worried.

At what times do you feel that it would be appropriate to have “lids down”?  When do you believe a laptop is not a tool for appropriate use?
I think this would be telling. Many teachers stuck in the lecture/listen mode would tell you that when they want kids to “listen” or “work with others” an interviewer would have to pry.  Those of us who have used the tool as collaborative note taker (think live blogging  or back channel notes here!) know the power of this, but a traditional teacher may struggle with the giving away the power of the tools to the kids.

How comfortable are you with using online resources in your classroom? What are some resources you have used in the past? How have your found these resources?
Hopefully your candidate has used online resources in their class before and they can articulate what and how they use those resources. I would continue on this question asking probing questions that lead me to the next question on this list. Do they use Wikipedia? How do they use it? Do they only name online databases or paid sites? In part you might be able to learn about their ability to search and find information on the Internet through the answers to this question.

Tell me how you think the future you are preparing children for will be different?
I’d love to hear the answers to this one. Of course as an administrator, you too better understand the new connected digital world we are preparing students for.

How often do you/have you taken part in technology Professional Development opportunities?
We know that constant professional development in the use of technology is needed. Both before and during the implementation of a 1:1 program. I want to know that the teacher candidate has continued to seek out and find ways to learn about technology. If it has been years since they have been to any technology PD courses/conferences/sessions, then this is an indication that they will need some support.

On the other hand hopefully they answer with something like “I take part in Professional Development opportunities every day.” This response would definitely be a notch up for an applicant. It would tell me two things. 1. That the teacher candidate is and believes in being a lifelong learner. 2. That they understand how to learn and take opportunities everyday to learn by connecting themselves into a network of professionals either locally or virtually.

Do you read any professional magazines or educational blogs as part of your own PD? If so, which ones?
With this question you are trying to find out if the candidate is comfortable with reading online resources. I believe this question also is a good lead question into the other questions below as they give the candidate a heads up that you are looking for a teacher that really understands how a 1:1 classroom is different, and that you expect your teachers do be reading online, researching online, and using the Internet as a resource in their classroom.

Do you have an RSS reader? If so, what do you subscribe to?
This is a huge hiring point for me. If candidates say they have an RSS reader and they understand what RSS is and what it means to “subscribe” to something, then they are on their way to understanding how teaching and learning changes in a networked digital environment. It also indicates a lifelong learner who has some understanding of how the web is changing.

Do you belong to any online communities?
What communities does the teacher belong to? Twitter? Any educational Ning sites? A Google or Yahoo group maybe? If a teacher answers he/she belongs to an educational community, then you have a lifelong learner on your hands who is open to learning and thinking in new ways.

Do you have a Personal Learning Network? If so, can you tell me a story of how you learn from your network.
Now you’re starting to separate the wheat from the chaff. If you can find a teacher that A. Knows what a PLN is and B. Can tell you a story of how they learn, you are looking at a teacher who might not know the platform that your 1:1 program is, but knows they have people that can help them learn it. A teacher that knows how to use a Personal Learning Network (PLN) is a teacher that will need little “official” professional development as they will be learning on their own, and most likely will be a leader in your school in helping others to learn.

How often do others come to you for guidance in using technology? Do you offer guidance when not asked? If so, describe how you did this recently?
Is this teacher viewed as a technology leader by others? Chances are you already knew that based on questions above. In a 1:1 teaching environment you can never have to many technology and learning experts in your grasp.

PDF: Interview Questions for 1:1 Schools w/answers

PDF: Interview Questions for 1:1 Schools w/o answers

photo courtesy of creative commons http://static.flickr.com/3179/2887167256_9bcb0f2c40.jpg

Technorati Tags: Jeff Utecht, International schools, interview questions

Sitting in an unconference session here in Shanghai discussion about 1:1. 

A gentleman in the back of the room just went on a “rail” against 1:1 classroom.  He is stating that there is no real reason for 1:1 programs, there are no test score returns on 1:1 programs… etc, etc?

So.. we all ask- Why are we really doing 1:1?

Let’s start a list, and I will begin to formulate references for the major points.

1.  Transforming the learning environment
2.  Extends and expands the learning setting for students
3.  Brings to the fingertips the resources of the internet that would not be accessible in the “guided” learning setting
4.  Develops the skills of collaboration that will serve the student through the life
5.  Engages families more readily in the educational process using the same collaboration tools.

More later…..