I've written a few ebooks (and lots of other things) for Microsoft over the years. You can link to some of my other publication on the right hand side of this website. My latest ramblings are on how you might use 1:1 Computing to Unlock Learning. As with all of these things it is a free .pdf download.
One to One Computing in education is the simple concept of every child and member of staff in a school or institution have access to a personal computer. Supported by the folks over at Microsoft I put together some thoughts on this based on my experience of being involved in a variety of 1:1 projects over the last five years.
Sometimes it seems to me that we have been banging on about 1:1 computing in education for years. Everyone I speak to seems to understand that it is an important paradigm shift in terms of education delivery and one that pretty much every system in the world will adopt (or try to adopt) over the next ten years.
As someone who has been involved in 1:1 deployments in schools across Eastern Europe, Russia and the Middle East. It constantly surprises me how slow we are to join up our thinking in the UK and how quite often projects fail or are abandoned because the basics aren’t in place.
Born out of this frustration, this eBook (supported by Microsoft UK) is my attempt to get people thinking about 1:1 in a more joined up way. I’ll talk about why 1:1 is important? The types of devices you should consider, policy considerations, how to make learning exciting in 1:1 environments and some emerging types of classroom practice from other areas of the world.
I’ll also point you in the direction of free tools and services from Microsoft that might help you on your journey. One of which is the Partners in Learning School Research Tool that will help you perform a diagnostic assessment of where you are, so that you can in turn create an action plan of how you move forward. Throughout the book, I’ve also provided a list of key questions that you need to consider before any 1:1 investment.
Finally, like all the other books in this series – this is a book about learning and how technology can provide better outcomes for children and young people.
Contents
What is 1:1?
Developing your 1:1 vision.
Policy and procedures
Good teaching and learning
Re-imagining classroom practice
Overcoming obstacles and getting started
Conclusion and next steps
You can view and download the book from this link and it is also embedded below:
I’ve done a lot
of work over the years with small technology and education startups.
This is normally around vision, refining a product, market analysis and sales
strategy. I find this work valuable because I strongly believe that you can apply what we know works about 21st century business to contribute the efficient running of schools and other learning organisations.
Glogster is obviously more
than a start up because it is already so established in the education space
(particularly in North America). However, having visited the head office in the Prague,
Czech Republic and various meetings with some of the founders over the last 12
months I am now delighted to accept a position on their education advisory
board.
Oh, and thanks
for the certificate guys – it did make me chuckle!
Tim Scratcherd (the School House Partnership) and I were
recently asked to write a report for the Oxford Education School
Improvement Series on the use of Tablets and Apps. The
purpose of this report is to provide practical support and guidance for school
leadership teams who are considering the purchase of tablet devices. The report
is aimed at school leaders and teacher in England but the ideas within the
report are transferable to other parts of the world.
With permission from
Oxford I’ve be duplicating some of the report on olliebray.com over
the last week. You can download the full report or order a paper copy over at
the new Oxford School Improvement Tablet and App Help
Centre.
The final part of the report consists of
three primary school case studies. You can also download all three case studies
as a separate .pdf and the expectation is that we will add further case studies
over time. In particular we are conscious that we need to add some examples of
Android and Windows 8 in the classroom.
For the time being though have a look to
see how tablets and Apps are being used in the following schools:
Also, don’t forget that our report makes up
a small part of the larger OUP Tablet and Apps Help Centre. Were you can also
find a range of other great resources including:
Tim Scratcherd (the School House Partnership) and I were
recently asked to write a report for the Oxford Education School
Improvement Series on the use of Tablets and Apps. The
purpose of this report is to provide practical support and guidance for school
leadership teams who are considering the purchase of tablet devices. The report
is aimed at school leaders and teacher in England but the ideas within the
report are transferable to other parts of the world.
With permission from
Oxford I’ll be duplicating some of the report on olliebray.com over
the next week. You can download the full report or order a paper copy over at
the new Oxford School Improvement Tablet and App Help
Centre.
_____________________________________________
Part
Five - Tablets and Apps: How to ensure impact on teaching and learning – Policy
Considerations
However you decide to integrate tablet
technology into your school you will have a number of policy considerations to
take into account to ensure consistent whole school practice.
Responsible
Use
Your school should already have a policy on
acceptable and responsible ICT use. However, with the introduction of tablets
it is very likely that you will need to update or adapt your policy. You need
to be clear about what is and what is not acceptable on a school’s network,
along with any sanctions that you will use if the rules are broken.
As well as formal procedures it is also
useful to work directly with children so that they can create their own rules
around tablet and ICT use. Teachers who have worked with children to co-create
ICT rules have found that they are more likely to be adhered to in the long
term.
The important thing to remember is that
there is absolutely no right or wrong way to write such a policy. Your policy
needs to reflect your school, who you wish to communicate with and what you
feel comfortable doing. Responsible use policies should be dynamic and
regularly reviewed.
As well as including your proposed use of
tablets in your schools’ ICT policy, you should also make sure that this is
covered in your Learning and Teaching policy.
Equality
of access
Equality of access is important in any
school but it is particularly important if you choose this is covered a 1:1
learning deployment. Equality becomes even more important if you choose to
develop a model where pupils are expected to bring in their own device (BYOD).
Although this is not yet common in state primary schools, it is a growing
trend.
In this situation you need to make sure
that you have put systems in place to ensure pupils and families who do not
have their own device can be provided with one or are provided with some
capital funding make a purchase. It is important that you have clear guidance
to ensure that children are not deprived of their digital entitlement, and that
the model you are proposing for your school is financially sustainable in the
long term.
Network
access policy
Most primary schools have some sort of
network and network support service, whether it is an external company or an
expert in school (ICT Service Manager, ICT Co-ordinator). The role is often not
full time.
You will need to speak to your network
support service to make sure that the type of tablet devices you decide to
purchase have the correct security certificates to be able to connect to your
school network – this will often depend on how your school network is built as
well as the type of device that you choose to adopt.
Check if your school has Wi-Fi or
traditional Ethernet ports (this may limit the types of device you can actually
buy and will certainly limit their portability).
Finally, if you are considering a large
tablet deployment (such as a 1:1 deployment) you need to be realistic as to how
this will impact on your bandwidth usage within your school. This will
particularly be the case if you plan to use a lot of browser based cloud
applications.
Put simply, you could have the best tablets
in the world but if you don’t have the network and infrastructure to support
them they will be limited in their functionality.
Teacher
and school leader professional development
Appropriate professional development is
often overlooked during many tablet projects, but it is the most important
aspect of any large technology deployment. By creating a policy related to this
professional development you will formalise the need for training within your
staff team.
Professional development should include
both technical and pedagogical training. Schools should also consider a blend
of face-to-face (expert and/or peer led) and online learning which is cost
effective, and can occur at the learner’s choice of time and place. Staff
should be given as many opportunities as possible to share ideas and learn from
each other’s practice. It is also important that staff understand the decisions
that you have had to make in order to choose your technology solution. In
particular, emphasis should be placed on why you think tablet technology will
improve teaching and learning (e.g. culturally relevant, fast boot up time,
availability of apps, highly accessible, etc.).
In my next post I’ll point you in the
direction of some tablet and apps case studies? – you can download the full “Tablets and Apps: How to ensure impact on
teaching and learning” report now for free over on the Oxford School
Improvement Site.
Tim Scratcherd (the School House Partnership) and I were
recently asked to write a report for the Oxford Education School
Improvement Series on the use of Tablets and Apps. The
purpose of this report is to provide practical support and guidance for school
leadership teams who are considering the purchase of tablet devices. The report
is aimed at school leaders and teacher in England but the ideas within the
report are transferable to other parts of the world.
With permission from
Oxford I’ll be duplicating some of the report on olliebray.com over
the next week. You can download the full report or order a paper copy over at
the new Oxford School Improvement Tablet and App Help
Centre.
_____________________________________________
Part
Four - Tablets and Apps: How to ensure impact on teaching and learning – Choosing
and using tablets
Tablet technology moves very rapidly.
Before considering the current range of devices available, you will need some
general principles for choosing and using tablets. Moving to the use of tablets
is a development that requires the same sort of thinking as any other
development. So, a consideration of what you want to achieve, where you are
now, what it will cost, and how you will know it has worked, within some sort
of shared and agreed development plan, is a good idea. For tablets, you will
need to consider all the following questions.
What
will be the focus of use?
There are two main areas to think about
here: whether the tablets are to be tools for teacher use, to help them improve
teaching or make management and administration processes more effective, or
whether they are for use by pupils, to improve learning processes. In practice
it is possible to do both, but for effective planning it is essential to
separate these out, because they have different implementation requirements.
For example, if you were only to use a set of tablets for teachers to move to a
paperless environment, you would be less concerned about the quality of your
Internet access.
What
sort of learning are we looking for?
The case studies show that, while there are
significant benefits in developing teacher use, the real impact comes from a
well-implemented approach to pupil use. Therefore, for pupil use, what sort of
learning gains are we looking for? Exciting learning, described earlier, is
exactly the sort of learning which is possible with tablets. At the same time,
there are other ways to achieve learning gains. Do you want learning to take
place, where it was not happening before, or
not happening very much? Do you want to
engage parents through increasing learning at home and outside formal settings?
Or do you want to change the nature of some or all of the learning? This is
where Exciting
Learning comes in.
What
sort of development would we like? Is it top-down, or bottom-up?
There are many instances of schools buying
a small number of devices, not just tablets ‘to find out what they can do’,
with the implication that if it looks as though they might be useful, more will
be bought. This is, of course, an example of bottom-up, or piloting. An example
of a top-down development might be the decision to do without an ICT suite and
replace with tablets. Bottom- up approaches have the advantage that they are
less costly. Top-down approaches have the advantage of immediacy and equality.
In both cases, we need to learn from other schools’ experiences, and after
reading the case studies, this is the fastest way to find out what they can do.
Experience shows that, once a development has started, a mixture of both
top-down and bottom-up approaches start to surface. The beauty of tablets is
that there is a very wide range of uses which deliver different types of
benefit.
Are
we clear about the costs versus the benefits of tablets?
At the same time, there needs to be a
consistent way of judging benefit. A good method is simply to ask, ‘How
much more learning do we get? Is the learning better?’ The commonest
reasons for the adoption of top-down approaches to tablets are that they
improve motivation, and they increase parental engagement. In both of these,
the underlying reason is more and better learning. More learning can be
achieved in very simple ways. For example, the fact that tablets start up
immediately removes delays from the learning process, and thus progress in
lessons is improved at once. After the learning gains have been chosen it is
time to ask, is the learning worth the cost? For a rapidly growing number of
schools, the answer is a resounding yes.
What
is the impact on infrastructure?
Some things are essential for effective use
of tablets. The first is high quality broadband, with a robust high quality
wireless infrastructure, which all tablets can access seamlessly from anywhere
learning takes place. Specialist advice is recommended to review current
provision. It is also very important to consider display options for tablet
devices. They can be made to connect up to existing projectors, but often it is
advantageous to consider display specific to the device, such as Apple TV. This has the benefit of
being a local wireless connection for any Apple type device in the classroom. Intel’s classmate PC offers a similar
projection solution through its pre-installed software. Thereafter, there are
three main areas which require ongoing management.
The
first is the installation and use of apps. Here,
management issues are the same as for all software. All apps need educational
licences. It is important to check the cost of installing an app on many
devices. Schools will also want to control the number and types of app
available on tablets.
The
second is e-safety. The filtering of websites is an
issue schools already need to consider, but which also impacts specifically
upon tablets in a variety of ways. For example, tablets synchronise with other
devices, meaning that all information including any pupil information can be
copied onto devices not under the school’s control. It is essential that
schools have an up-to-date e-safety policy (see tomorrows post!).
Thirdly,
there is the storage of pupil work. Tablets are
designed as devices for individuals, whereas the work pupils produce needs to
be shared for a whole range of purposes; particularly for assessment including
marking and other feedback, and celebration through publishing. Typically this
has been done on PC based local area networks by having shared local folders
where all work is stored. There can be shared folders for tablets but these are
not local and carry with them security and copyright issues. Current solutions
are essentially work rounds involving pupils emailing work as attachments to
teachers or the use of a cloud based storage system such as Google
Drive or Microsoft Skydrive.
Have we
considered the total cost of ownership of tablets?
Schools are very familiar with the ideas of capital (start-up) and
revenue (running) costs, and these are easily identifiable from the above.
Don’t forget to include energy costs in calculations, particularly if you plan
to deploy a lot more devices in schools. One cost which can be often neglected
is the cost of professional development.
In summary, there are three forms of cost; purchase, maintenance, and
the time spent to use tablets correctly.
How are we
going to procure?
There will be a need not just to procure the devices, but also a review
of infrastructure in general, and possibly wireless connectivity upgrades and a
management service or tool for control over apps. This depends upon the nature
of the project and the availability of funding. It is tempting, when running a
pilot with a small number of devices simply to buy the devices. This leaves the
school open to all sorts of risk. Another option is for pupils to bring their
own devices (BYOD) which carries equal risk and also brings into question an
entitlement to learning for all. In the following case studies the devices
start off as being owned by the school, but pass into the property of the
parents after an agreed length of time. The two commonest routes taken by
schools are outright purchase, and leasing arrangements, whereby the devices
remain the property of the school, but parents pay a monthly sum until purchase
after a period of time for a nominal amount.
What device are
we going to procure?
There is a large range of devices to choose from, but there are only a
small number of operating systems used. These are Android, iOS and Windows. The
iOS operating system is used on Apple devices. A wide range of manufacturers
use the Android operating system to produce tablets of all sizes and
functionality. The vast majority of primary schools working with tablets are
using the iOS devices, and there are very good reasons for this: the huge and
growing range of apps available, covering practically all the ways both pupils
and teachers might wish to use the devices; the fact that the look and feel of
the device is the same for all of them; their comparative robustness; the
growing number of specialist support companies who understand the particular
needs of schools; the national network of consultants (Apple
Distinguished Educators) available to help with professional development; and
the wealth of practical experience available from schools and others.
There are also reasons for choosing devices with other operating
systems: Android devices tend to be cheaper, and Windows 8 offers the
opportunity of better integration with any existing PC based infrastructure.
There is a bewildering choice of Android based devices, and schools need to
spend the time comparing features and cost.
More about
cloud storage
There are many services offering to store files ‘in the cloud’, which use
remote storage through the web. Some of them are generic and some are for
specific files, such as photos. While there are many advantages to using these
services, all of them have different arrangements regarding copyright and
security, and many have other constraints, such as the age of those using them.
School leaders intending to use one of these services are recommended to
investigate thoroughly before committing pupil information and files to them.
Some
key things to consider when choosing a tablet
Have
a think about:
Battery life
Camera quality and direction
Build quality
Quality and range of apps
Methods for saving pupil work
In my next post I’ll discuss Policy
Considerations – you can download the full “Tablets and Apps: How to ensure impact on teaching and learning” report
now for free over on the Oxford School
Improvement Site.
Tim Scratcherd (the School House Partnership) and I were
recently asked to write a report for the Oxford Education School
Improvement Series on the use of Tablets and Apps. The
purpose of this report is to provide practical support and guidance for school
leadership teams who are considering the purchase of tablet devices. The report
is aimed at school leaders and teacher in England but the ideas within the
report are transferable to other parts of the world.
With permission from
Oxford I’ll be duplicating some of the report on olliebray.com over
the next week. You can download the full report or order a paper copy over at
the new Oxford School Improvement Tablet and App Help
Centre.
_____________________________________________
Part
Two - Tablets and Apps: How to ensure impact on teaching and learning – What
are Tablets and Apps
Tablet computers have been on the market
since 2002. However, tablet computing has become more popular in recent years.
This ‘tablet revolution’ is partly due to the success of the Apple iPad that
was first launched in 2010. The iPad is currently one of the most popular
tablets on the market and its success has spawned a variety of competing
devices that run different operating systems, such as Google’s Android and
Microsoft’s Windows 8. Some of these devices and their operating systems are
discussed in more detail in Jan
Webb’s excellent comparison table.
Tablets
A tablet is a mobile computer that usually
has a touchscreen or a pen enabled interface (or both). A tablet computer does
not normally have a built in physical keyboard which means that text input is
normally carried out using an on-screen touch-screen keyboard. Physical
keyboards are often available for tablets as peripheral items. Some of these
keyboards, such as the one available for Microsoft’s Surface, also
double up as a protective cover.
Tablet computers tend to be less powerful
and have less physical storage space than traditional desktops and laptops.
They also tend to have a very fast boot up time. Most tablet devices are Wi-Fi
enabled and increasingly there is also capacity to connect to the Internet via
3G or 4G cellular services.
As well as their operating system tablet
computers also often run apps (see
below).
Tablets
vs other portable devices
Tablets
are great, they are not the only portable device available on the market. Other
portable devices include:
Laptop
computers are portable computers that can be used
with or without the Internet (eg: Apple
MacBook Pro).
Netbook
computers are portable computers that gain most of
their functionality through the Internet (eg: Google Chromebook).
Smartphones
continue to blur the lines between being phones and
being powerful Internet enabled devices that link to the Internet though Wi-Fi
but also cellular networks such as 3G and 4G (eg: iOS, Windows Mobile, Android, Blackberry, etc.).
Tablet
Computers fall somewhere in between laptop-like
computers and large smartphones. All are wifi enabled but some also allow for
3G and 4G connectivity (eg: Microsoft Surface, iPad, Android Tablet, etc.)
eBook
Readers in their purest sense are designed for
people to engage with text, although many also allow you to check you email and
do other things (eg: Kindle, Kobo, etc.)
Audio
and Video MP3/MP4 Players let you play pre-installed content but may also allow you to connect to
the Internet (eg: iPod Touch).
The
power of tablets in teaching and learning
Tablet technology allows teachers access to
a wide variety of resource though the Internet and/or their school VLE.
Ubiquitous access to this type of technology helps teachers collaborate with
other professionals from both within and outside their own school. This can
help with the sharing of ideas, increases professional dialogue and can
facilitate collaborative lesson planning. Although other technology may also
facilitate the above, it is the portability, long battery life, quick boot up
time and user experience that make tablet technology unique and powerful.
Tablet technology also has the potential to
develop more personalised learning opportunities for children, where they use
their devices to pursue (sometimes with support) their own personal interests
and passions.
Tablet technology can also be used to
assist with the personal regulation of learning through a variety of built in
productivity tools, such as calendar, electronic mail and tasks. As well as
supporting learners to self-reflect, track and be reflective of their own
learning journey.
Apps
An ‘app’ is short for ‘application’, which
is another name for a computer program. Apps aren’t exclusive to tablets. You
can also get apps for smartphones and more traditional PCs. apps are just
computer programmes that you download from the Internet from places called app
Stores or Marketplaces.
Apps let your tablet do almost anything
that the programmers can imagine, within the technical limitations of the
device. Apps often make use of the hardware features of the tablet that they
are running off, for example the camera and GPS.
Apps can range in price from free to around
£50 for some specialist programmes. But most apps tend to cost between £1 - £3.
Most app stores will allow you to browse specifically for free apps, and many
of these have some relevance in education. You should check licensing
arrangements if you want to install an app on a large number of devices.
The
Post PC era
The Post-PC era is a term coined by Apple Inc. to describe a trend in the consumer
electronics industry, where the use of a personal computer (PC)
as the primary form of technology is
declining in favour of other devices such as smartphones and tablet computers.
The popularity of smartphones and tablets
have influenced the economy of the computer industry; sales of traditional PCs
(in particular desktops) have steadily fallen since surge in popularity for
post-PC devices that was started by the introduction of the iPad upon its
launch in 2010.
More
about Net Books
A net book can be the same size as any
normal laptop or smaller. The key difference between a netbook and a
traditional laptop is that a netbooks gets most of its functionality through
the Internet. The term Netbook comes
from Internet - this means that they
are likely to have less physical storage, run less proprietary software and
have lower processing power to a normal laptop. A chromebook is the best
example - because it is literally just as browser in a laptop shell.
In my next post I’ll discuss what good
learning with tablets might look like? – you can download the full “Tablets and Apps: How to ensure impact on
teaching and learning” report now for free over on the Oxford School
Improvement Site.
I wasn’t too keen on the RM Notebook 320 – mainly
because it didn’t have a touch screen and Windows 8 needs a touchscreen. But I
did like the Asus W510 and I gave it a pretty robust test over the Christmas
holidays when I was away in the Alps.
Shape the Future is now in Edinburgh and
Glasgow and I’m hopeful that other Local Authorities might start to follow
their examples as it seems to make a lot of sense to me.
"Shape the Future is an innovative, simple and cost effective way to get all students using 1:1 devices at home and in the classroom. The affordability of this device and software package is supported by Microsoft's global digital inclusion programme, in collaboration with RM Education and Intel. Exclusively available from RM Education, this has been specifically designed to help you provide a great value 1:1 device programme for all students and their teachers."
This
is part of a series of posts that document some of my personal thoughts on some
of the myths surrounding 1:1 learning(one device per learner)and 1:1 deployments in schools and
school systems.
--------------------------------------
Myth 5 – 1:1 is all about independent learning
Obviously, if
used in the right way, 1:1 (one device for
each learner) does offer opportunities for independent learning. But the
reality of it is the digital collaborative learning opportunities are far
greater with 1:1 than without. It is also important to remember that ‘independent’ learning doesn’t necessarily
mean ‘learning by yourself’.
I think there is
a time and a place for children to learn independently but then I also feel
that as human beings we achieve our greatest learning feats through
collaboration and copying. Just think how you learnt to walk, talk and read. Isn’t it a shame that education is still
one of the only aspects of society that still calls copying, ‘cheating’.
Even in large
scale 1:1 deployments that don’t necessarily involve good connectivity, the
right solution can still offer digital collaboration on a classroom / school
level through a Local Area Network (LAN). Of course the real power of digital
collaboration comes when you combine 1:1 with good connectivity and give
learners the full power of the Internet.
You have a group
of young people working on Chromebooks in Google Docs. If
you look carefully you can see that there are a number of other learners in the
document all collaborating at the same time. In this case all of the collaborators
are all in the same room, but they could be anywhere in the world.
When you observe
learning like this it really starts to make you think more about ratios and
what it is we are actually trying to achieve in education. Google Docs can
achieve a ratio of 50:1 (fifty learners
all contributing to one document in real-time). What’s more because Google
Docs is a browser-based application you can easily edit documents on any
Internet enabled device (although it is
optimized for Android and Chrome)
The real-time
collaboration features of Google Docs really does make it a killer application
for education. I just wish more people would consider using it to support
learning and formative assessment. Microsoft’s Office 2013
supports similar features, so perhaps we might see more of an uptake then?
Google Docs is
obviously not the only suite of collaboration tools now available to learners.
Other collaboration tools include blogs, wikis, web-based conferencing, voice
threads, glogs and loads of other stuff.
There really is an amazing suite of opportunities
available for educators to help support learning theses days. Combined with
good learning and teaching 1:1 technology integration in our schools can only
enhance these opportunities.
This
is part of a series of posts that document some of my personal thoughts on some
of the myths surrounding 1:1 learning(one device per learner)and 1:1 deployments in schools and
school systems.
--------------------------------------
Myth 4 – 1:1 is the best ratio for learning
I can’t disagree
that 1:1 isn’t a good ratio BUT
sometimes other ratios are a lot more appropriate. Just because you have the
capacity for 1:1 in your school doesn’t mean that it is the best ratio to use
all of the time.
Indeed, when we
look at learning from 3 years to 18 years a significant amount of thought needs
to go into when you would like to achieve 1:1 (if you do at all). This is particularly the case when you don’t
work within a 3 – 18 school. I know of a number of examples where 1:1 has been
integrated successfully and purposefully in the upper primary (elementary) school yet when the
children move to secondary (high)
school this provision has not been continued and as a result has a regressive
impact on learning.
So, what are the
optimum ratios? In short, there is no easy answer to this. It really depends on
what it is you are trying to achieve. But it is important to remember that
sometimes 1:many (one device for many learners) is fine
and that there is absolutely nothing wrong with a lecture style presentation.
Of course the
advantage of learners having their own device in this type of environment means
that they can provide feedback and ask questions during the presentation (sometime referred to back channeling).
Devices can also be used to follow up links that the presenter has mentioned –
these can be bookmarked for exploration at a later date or quickly shared with
others across social networking spaces. One important consideration during this
type of environment is that this type of interaction, although powerful, does
not come naturally to young people – it is a skill that is required to be
taught and practiced if it is going to have any real impact.
As well as
1:many, there are also lots of examples when 1:3/4/5(one device for
three, four or five learners) might be appropriate. These are all good
ratios to support collaborative learning and group work. Tablet technology can
have a real advantage here.
There is something about children working around a
tablet device that seems to make it more collaborative – could it be that in physical
collaborative learning scenarios the screen can actually act as a barrier to
learning. Despite their cost the role of the Interactive Table should
also not be underestimated in developing collaboration and problem solving
skills.
Research from my
genius of a friend Professor Sugata
Mitra (University of Newcastle) and others has also proved time-and-time
again that 1:2 (one device for two learners)is also another great ratio for learning (particularly for younger children). It’s small enough to allow
opportunities for children to get time on the computer without arguing who
should be in the driving seat BUT it also allows dialogue and conversation
between children as they work to solve real world problems and consolidate
their learning tasks.
Of course the
nice thing about having 1:1(one device for each learner) is that
all of the above can be achieved but children can also work with their own
device where appropriate.
Now, in my
opinion, one of the biggest mistakes that is often made in 1:1 deployments is
that people aim for a 1:1 ratio and provide teacher professional development
for learning and teaching at this ratio.
Of course (particularly for older children – but
increasing younger ones as well) the real ratio that we should be aiming
for is at least 2:1 (two devices for each
learner). I see this more and more in the forward thinking progressive
schools and systems that I have the pleasure to work in from time-to-time.
In this scenario,
learners are supported by a main device (it
could be a desktop, laptop, netbook, hybrid or tablet) and their handheld (normally their phone).
Many of thepeople reading this article will
probably already work this way. For example, I’m writing this blog post on my
Laptop (my choice is to use a keyboard
for extended writing) but I’ve got an eye on twitter on my iPad that is next to
me and 5 minutes ago I replied to a text message on my mobile phone.
Another recent
example is from when I checked into a hotel for a conference in Stockholm last
week.
The wifi voucher that I was given by the hotel receptionist allowed me to
connect 5 personal devices to the hotel network.
Now, I only had 3 with me (laptop, tablet & phone) but that is
not the point – the point is in the business word and increasingly in the education world we are required to be connected
by a variety of devices most of the time, in order to do the tasks we are set (and set ourselves) to the maximum
efficiency.
As you start to develop 1:1 learning scenarios in
your school / system don’t forget to develop other scenarios in parallel that
involve other ratios and other types of technology integration.
This
is part of a series of posts that document some of my personal thoughts on some
of the myths surrounding 1:1 learning(one device per learner)and 1:1 deployments in schools and
school systems.
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Myth 3 – 1:1 Computing Improves Standards
Nonsense! Only good learning and teaching improves standards.
A poor teacher
with great technology will still not deliver the results that our children
deserve.
However, I truly believe that a good or excellent teacher, who is
committed to professional learning and who is supported by great technology has
the potential to transform lives. It is also important
to remember that technology is only part of any model for educational
transformation.
Now, there are lots of models of educational
transformation available, they are all high level and they are all useful up to
a point. Lets take the Intel model of
education transformation as an example – as this is the one that I have
been working with the most recently.
In this model for
transformation to occur a number of things need to exist in equal parts.
First you need
good policy (at national, local and school level) this is the bit that gives
teachers and school leaders permission to transform education. A key failing of
most education policy is that people don’t actually understand the policy or
have time to read them. Good education policy must contain specific objectives
as well as higher level strategic advice. In short, people need to know which
way they are aiming!
Good policy also
gives permission to develop the curriculum
and assessment methodology. Again the two must match up. You can’t have
high level policy that talks about preparing children for life in the 3rd
millennium and then develop a curriculum that re-invents something from the
past and its only way of verifying children’s learning is by a hand written
assessment when they are about to leave school – this just does not make sense.
Policy,
curriculum and new assessment methodology must be based on sound academic and
action research. But it must also be
based on local need.
Evaluation must
be on-going at a system, state and local level. Most of this type of resource
should be put into evaluation at a local level – rather than a state or system
level that it is at the moment. While comparing one country to another country
through standard measures such as PISA
might be important to politicians – what
is actually going on in the classroom must remain the most important thing.
Technology integration should be seen at a number of levels but
also people need to understand it can fulfill a variety of purposes. The
following purposes are not inclusive but people need to understand that
technology has a number of roles in educational transformation.
Firstly, the use
of technology as a pedagogical methodology to support teaching and learning
across the curriculum. Good technology integration is not just about up-grading
computing labs. See my work on Exciting
Learning.
Secondly, the use
of technology to track learning, report to parents, improve the productivity
& running of a school and to share data with others. Working at a
conference with Michal Fullan recently
I heard him say he thinks that school improvement can be sped up by at least
20% through good technology integration. I think he is right.
Thirdly, the use
of technology to deliver appropriate rich digital content to learners. This
content, where possible, should support local curriculum and national
standards. Modern IT delivery systems should allow for personalization, guided
learning and structured courses – all of which are appropriate at different
times of a learners journey.
Fourthly, the use
of technology to support assessment and evaluation (see above). Unfortunately, many technology solutions only cater
for summative assessment. BUT, good technology integration can also be
incredibly powerful in supporting formative assessment as well.
Lastly, the use
of technology to support teacher professional development.
Teacher Professional Development (or Professional Learning) is another
important aspect of educational transformation. In some systems technology
integration (particularly around 1:1)
have not been as successful as they could have been because of a lack of
training for teachers (Thailand
for example). Where others systems, such as Macedonia,
built in robust training programs from the start.
It is also
important to remember that professional learning doesn’t have to be
face-to-face. Good professional
development like any good learning needs to be blended and should include a
combination of face-to-face, online, large group and personalized learning
experiences. It is also important to remember that learning and teaching
looks very different in a 1:1 environment than a traditional classroom
environment. Educators need early support here to stop the technology becoming
a distraction to rather than an improvement to learning.
In short, before
any major investment in technology you need to be absolutely sure what it is
you are trying to do. If your aim is to
raise standards – what standards are
you trying to raise and why? If improved use of technology the best way to
do this do you have the policy, research, curriculum, assessment methodology
and professional development in place to reach your objectives. If not your project is likely to fail.
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