How to prepare students for a 1:1 program
We are in month 4 of our new 1:1 tablet program. Buffalo Seminary is a very small (160 girls) high school. We began the program with our new 9th graders. In many ways, the program is going better than I expected. I had made a conscious decision to emphasize the paperless concept as a jumping off point because all of the teachers could initially work on the same skill together. It was a way to get everyone using the new technology and becoming comfortable enough to move forward with creative teaching and learning ideas. My teachers did an awesome job and most assignments are now graded electronically. Notetaking is done in One Note, or directly on PowerPoint ‘s or worksheets distributed online or through synchroneyes. We even went so far as to install digital student planners on the tablets and did not give the freshmen the traditional paper planners that the upper class girls get.
We are facing some of the challenges I expected. We deal daily with broken styluses and tablets that freeze and need to be rebooted, missing power adapters and applications that close unexpectedly. These are all minor annoyances and are handled as efficiently as possible.
There are, however, challenges that I would love to get some feedback on from others who may have experienced these issues.
Although not as much of a problem as it had been, I still have girls who are always losing their notes or assignments. Many girls are still struggling with the difference between “save” and “save as”. Some have trouble keeping all of the One Note sections active and attached to the correct Notebook files. Notes written seem to disappear from the page the next time the file is opened. They never cease to amaze in the creative ways they can accidentally delete or misplace files. We have spent much of our Freshman Computer class time trying to chase down all of these “demons”.
Partly as a reaction to that and partly because change is always difficult, approx. 25% of my students are unhappy with the tablets and want to go back to pen and paper. I did allow them to use a paper planner if they wanted to, and I know that some of the teachers are allowing them to take notes on paper. They are a very vocal minority and I am concerned about how to help them to adjust. How do other schools prepare students to function in a 1:1 environment?
We are facing some of the challenges I expected. We deal daily with broken styluses and tablets that freeze and need to be rebooted, missing power adapters and applications that close unexpectedly. These are all minor annoyances and are handled as efficiently as possible.
There are, however, challenges that I would love to get some feedback on from others who may have experienced these issues.
Although not as much of a problem as it had been, I still have girls who are always losing their notes or assignments. Many girls are still struggling with the difference between “save” and “save as”. Some have trouble keeping all of the One Note sections active and attached to the correct Notebook files. Notes written seem to disappear from the page the next time the file is opened. They never cease to amaze in the creative ways they can accidentally delete or misplace files. We have spent much of our Freshman Computer class time trying to chase down all of these “demons”.
Partly as a reaction to that and partly because change is always difficult, approx. 25% of my students are unhappy with the tablets and want to go back to pen and paper. I did allow them to use a paper planner if they wanted to, and I know that some of the teachers are allowing them to take notes on paper. They are a very vocal minority and I am concerned about how to help them to adjust. How do other schools prepare students to function in a 1:1 environment?
Tags: 1:1
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sean Nash on
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Beth... I am curious as to the teacher training you provided or are providing within this initiative.
;-)
Sean
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Permalink Reply by Beth Adamczyk on
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I’d like to think that we have pretty aggressive faculty tech training. I found that large group training was only good when you were introducing something briefly at a faculty meeting, or when having an optional seminar which was announced in advance. About 4 years ago I began scheduling regular 10 minute meetings with each teacher. I would work with them on whatever they wanted or needed. I felt that if I could get them comfortable with their own use of technology, that they would be more open to using it in the classroom. In addition to the 10 minute meetings, all teachers are required to attend a small group tech session once a week during an assigned free period. This system allowed me to work with each teacher individually in their weak areas, and to move the entire faculty forward together during the group sessions. Two years ago, we used Will Richardson’s Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts book as our text for the year. I kept telling them that soon we would all have computers in every class instead of the lab and several carts. They didn’t really get that part of it until the Trustees actually accepted my plan last year. Last year’s sessions were all about getting ready for the tablets. I was also able to take all 13 of my 9th grade teachers to the Lausanne Laptop Institute in Memphis last summer. I had a 5 day session for them again in August right before school began to test out lesson plans and software.
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