When every student in your school has a laptop: The 1:1 laptop initiative

I foresee a time when every student will carry a laptop/notebook/netbook to class (this is already the case in higher education and perhaps already true in your setting). I think most teachers' uses will lag far behind the exponential potential of this learning tool.

I wonder what this 2.0 fraternity is already doing with laptops in class. Is it a 6-12 or a K-12 initiative? What are the ways you have immersed laptops into student learning? What are some of the issues you encounter, or have answered and solved? What do you consider proper use of social networking in the classroom and beyond the school day within your classroom network; does your school or district have a clause about it in the acceptable use policy?

I also wonder what vision this 2.0 community has for stretching beyond current applications...

Tags: 1:1, computers in the classroom, every student has a laptop, laptops, netbooks, notebooks

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Permalink Reply by Tracy Gardner on September 3, 2009 at 9:06am

Laptops/netbooks for each student would be amazing! I teach sixth grade (in elementary school) and use laptops at least once a week in the classroom. In our school we have three laptop carts to share with 550 students, although most of the primary students do not use them. Some of the uses have been for test prep for assessments, practicing typing skills, and doing research for any number of projects (these however do not maximize the potential of this technology). Last year my class was able to create a classroom blog that each student would write on once a week, summarizing what they had read out of an independent reading book. We would then take turns making comments on each other's blogs. I found this to be highly motivational for students to actually read independently in and outside of school. One issue was that of security and whether or not to allow students to have their own blog. Our currently AUP does not address any kind of social networking, but I would guess that it will need to in the near future.

Beyond these ideas, I am beginning this year to work with podcasts and hope to have students using the laptops for these. We will see if it works! I am interested to see how others use their laptops.

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Wylie on September 3, 2009 at 12:06pm

We have a set of about 20 laptops for our elementary which has a roll of about 160. The laptops are about 5 years old, the batteries are shot, only some have flash installed, and they are slower than molasses. 1:1 would be amazing, without a doubt, but right now I would settle for 1:5 that worked properly! As for Social Networking, I think our district is coming around to it, in as far as they know it is a hot issue, but I cannot see much happening on it in the near future. It is not in our AUP either. I started a class website this year, and as far as I know, I am the only one in the district that has one. That is about as 'out there' as we are just now...

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Permalink Reply by Sylvia Martinez on September 3, 2009 at 12:13pm

If you'd like, I wrote an article about how students can be more actively involved with laptop initiatives. 1:1 is about literally putting power in student hands, and I wrote about some ways to extend that idea to give students more ownership of the laptops, and by extension, of their own learning. It can take the form of student tech teams, students training teachers and students on how to use the laptops, students on peer review committees for AUP policy infractions, even students on tech committees. You can download it here: Student Support of Laptop Programs.

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Brockberg on September 22, 2009 at 10:33pm

Hi Sylvia,
Cool articles, and magnificently deep and thought-provoking. I like the course charted by Gen Yes. I will check into the website. Any other resources you can direct me to?
Kevin