One-to-One Initiative

I am not a teacher but when given the opportunity to pursue my interest in teaching, I would expect that to initiate a one-to one program would depends heavily on the budget of the school. While the idea of giving students technology such as an Ipad or Laptop to use is great, this can be a challenge for schools to maintain. For one, there is no supervision of the devices when they are offsite except for tracking cookies etc, but actual damage to the equipment is possible. The other concern is that even though the student may have the device, they may not be able to access the internet, which perhaps would render having the device useless because most likely they need to use the internet for research. Even though my abovementioned points speaks of the challenges to implement such an initiative, one-to-one programs are very valuable in helping students continue their learning beyond the classroom. It is possible for such a program to have success if the financial backing is in place. Even if there is minimal funding, perhaps this type of program can be implemented starting out with one classroom for the school year. So for example, for 2013, all the students in Grade 10 would have the privilege to have a device for the entire year on weeknights and weekends.

For one-one programs, I envision Ipads/tablets being the device of choice. They are intuitive, easier to tote, great battery life and provides lots of apps that can be helpful to students learning. I am also not sure of BYOT is an option especially for students who cant afford a device. Part of the goal of a one-to-one initiative is to provide students who cant afford a laptop or Ipad, an opportunity to be on equal footing with those students that can, so they can learn and progress at the same pace.

As far as feedback that I would expect from teachers, I would expect them to ask about the safety and privacy concerns of students using devices without supervision. I would expect them to want to experiment with the initiative and give their feedback. I would expect some teachers to say that it does not help students learn better or improve their reading. I expect the feedback to be a mix of positive and negative.

If I had a classroom, I would use one-to-one initiative to conduct more group projects, especially if students are given IPad. They could go on field trips and collaborate together around the assignment. This initiative would also be good for individual assignment, where students can access the students IPad or laptop and provide a live demonstration. Students could also use their device to conduct live presentation of their homework straight from their device. I would use this initiative to understand how my students learn, so I would track their activity on the device.