Apr 10 2010
1:1- Resources, Teachers, Committed Leaders, Student Centered Approaches and PD!- It is 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“How can kids compete in the global economy when the information the schools feed them is stale and is outdated and is old?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 Not “stale” or “outdated” ones.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 Not “stale” or “outdated” ones.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 Not “stale” or “outdated” ones.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,
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