A One-to-One Laptop Program as Professional Development for a BYO Program
By Michael Partridge BYO
Bring Your Own Technology or Bring Your Own Device is a growing idea in the K-12 arena. For many years colleges and universities have successfully taken this approach to student technology. If it works in higher education can it work in k-12 classrooms? I say it can (and will) work. However our K-12 schools would be well served to begin with a school-provided 1:1 laptop program before jumping into a BYO approach.
A school-provided one laptop per student (1:1) program sets the stage for a Bring Your Own (BYO) program. The 1:1 program is a stepping-stone. Through the program, teachers move away from teaching technology tools and toward utilizing the tools to teach subject content. However, none of this will happen until a school embraces a school-provided 1:1 program. When a school provides all students with the same laptop, there is uniformity in the student tool. With this standard in place, teachers can
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remain focused on the business of teaching and learning, without the distractions of differing software and differing devices. When all students use the same device, the teacher can master that one device. Once the teacher masters that device, the teacher can begin to transform the teaching and learning in powerful ways. In the BYO classroom, the teacher is asked to transform teaching and learning while simultaneously managing an ever-changing landscape of technology devices. Allowing the teachers a consistent technology tool provides them with the ability to control the rate of change in their classroom.
Teaching with technology is a process that has many steps for teachers to work through. In the beginning, teachers are learning how to use the technology for their own benefit. Along the way they learn to replace traditional pencil and paper activities with technology enhanced experiences. Eventually they grow to facilitate student use of technology to communicate understanding of concepts. Traditional teaching models and technology do not often mix well. Therefore, as teachers adopt new technology tools, they must learn how to manage student technology and how to teach differently.
I work in a district that has recently moved to providing students in grades seven through twelve with laptop computers. The program is exciting and offers learning opportunities that were unthinkable in previous years. In our second year, teachers are still learning routines for classroom management, supervision, and appropriate use of the laptops. At the center of the teachers’ concerns is how to effectively use this new technology as a tool for making a difference in the classroom. Teachers are each attempting strategies for utilizing the technology in effective ways. In one classroom you will find a teacher guiding the students to a very specific web site for research. In another classroom you will find the students all working on a document in a word processor. In another classroom you find all students being directed on how to edit a movie using the school’s software. These are activities with embedded learning outcomes and content expectations, but in a new way that engages students and appeals to their sense of purpose. In many of these scenarios you will find the teacher directing the student in exactly how to use the tool, much like you might direct a six-year-old in how to use a hammer. While these teachers are making strides along their technology integration journey, they are still very early in the process. Their focus is still on teaching the tool rather than using the tool to teach the content of their subject area. Like training the six-year- old, they are teaching how to use the hammer, rather than when the hammer is the best tool to use.
Teachers need this experience to act as professional development time to grow in their understanding of true technology integration. Learning to identify concept mastery demonstrated in new ways requires time and experience. When students are all working on guided technology-driven activities, teachers learn to understand a new way of thinking. In the past teachers read student papers to determine student understanding. However, this new technology integrated
SPRING/SUMMER 2012 | MACULJOURNAL
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