It is clear from the work of dedicated educators involved in technology initiatives that simply giving students and teachers laptops doesn’t mean that there will be a positive impact on the students and learning. Doing 1to1 well is more complex and involved than that. The goal of this session is to make that complexity clear and provide educators interested in 1to1 with practical ideas on the strategies that will promote success of the program and making readers aware of the pitfalls to avoid.

More and more schools, districts, and states (and countries!) are taking the first steps toward 1to1. The need for good information about what initiatives have learned about doing 1to1 right is stronger than ever. Doing 1to1 Right! is based, largely, on what we (Maine) learned from our experience. We, like the other initiatives that had gone before us, had to invent the work ourselves. The fact that the initiative is working well in some schools and not so well in others has been very educative. It has helped MLTI project leaders learn what works and what doesn’t work in 1to1 schools.

Participants will leave with a systems view of doing 1to1 successfully in schools. It reminds educators that they need to focus on the main thing, learning (not hardware and software), if they want to be successful. It also introduces the two critical components of any 1to1 initiative, Teacher Practice and Leadership, and four supportive but necessary components: professional development, technology access and support, partnerships, and funding.

MLTI has identified leadership as the single most important factor to the success of the implementation of a learning with laptop initiative. Participants will know how the vision and expectations, set by the principal and project leadership team, set the tone of the project and are critical for teachers to effectively begin to integrate the technology into their teaching and the students' learning.

If leadership directly impacts the overall success of the initiative, then teacher practices is the most critical component to the initiative's impact on students. Participants will leave understanding the nuances of using technology in classrooms, including the challenges to technology integration, approaches to using technology, making teaching with technology engaging, and classroom management. Participants will know several specific strategies for teaching with technology, including social networking, personal broadcasting, project-based learning with multimedia, inquiry, online content and tools, digital storytelling, and simulations and modeling.

Participants will also leave with an understanding of the four supportive but necessary components, including the following: Professional Development (lessons learned on successful professional development, getting teachers started, technology integrators, and the human network); Technology Access and Support (the role of the technology coordinator; hardware, software, and the network; maintenance and repair; and involving students); Partners who can help with the success of a program (implementation partners, community partners, cheerleading partners, pedagogical partners, and funding partners); and Strategies for creating sustainable funding to start and continue a learning with laptop program.

Outline

A) Introduction: overview of Maine’s learning with laptop initiative and the system’s model for “Doing 1to1 Right!” (3 minutes)
B) Focus on Learning: focus on learning; thinking about achievement; classroom behavior; community support (5 minutes)
C) Teacher Practice: teaching and learning; contrasting practices; motivation & engagement; levels of technology use; highly effective strategies for teaching with technology; how learning changes (15 minutes)
D) Leadership: effective leaders; leadership is everything; expectancy and supervision; shared leadership; school vision work; procedures & policies (12 minutes)
E) Professional Development: multiple approaches; deep commitment to change; prof dev in context of teaching; initial training; technology integrators; networks of support (7 minutes)
F) Technology Access and Support: hardware, software, & network; platform wars; infrastructure; role of tech lead; keeping everything running (5 minutes)
G) Partnerships: types of partners (3 minutes)
H) Funding: getting started; repurposing money; integrated funding (5 minutes)
I) Q&A (5 minutes)

Supporting Research

Analyzing over 700 studies, Schacter (1995) concludes that technology initiatives have to focus on teaching and learning, not the technology, in order to be successful: "One of the enduring difficulties about technology and education is that a lot of people think about the technology first and the education later" (Schacter, 1995, p. 11). Studies that show a negative impact of technology often indicates that the initiatives themselves focused on hardware and software, or teachers taught about the technology instead of using the technology to enhance learning experiences. Further, the real value of technology isn’t learning to use technology, but rather using technology to learn.

The research on learning with technology, especially within a 1:1 learning with laptop environment is promising. The Metiri Group (2006a, 2006b), in two recent reports, points to the strong evidence, including from rigorous, scientific studies, that technology improves learning and higher order thinking skills. Further, the evidence from 1:1 learning with laptop initiatives (Metiri Group, 2006a) is that they not only improve student achievement, but advance digital equity, enhance teaching and learning, and strengthen economic development.

The integration of laptops may be especially important to schools with a high concentration of disengaged, unmotivated, at-risk, and disenfranchised students. The Metiri Group (2006a) points out the following:

"[R]esearch suggests that, though the “Digital Divide” is narrowing in respect to access to technology, it still exists. As of 2002, the Pew Foundation estimated the gap in access to the Internet between high-income families and low-income families to be 48 percentage points, 86 percent to 38 percent, respectively. Further, research has demonstrated that, even where there is a computer in the home, less-advantaged families are likely to be more intimidated by the technology and are less likely to use it as a powerful source for information. In addition, these homes are less likely to have a variety of software on their computers and less likely to have access to cutting-edge technologies such as video editing, sound production, video conferencing, etc."

The Metiri Group (2006a) also points out the economic development benefits communities might expect to experience:

"The 1 to 1 learning programs contribute to economic development in two important ways. First and foremost, it reengages disenfranchised, at-risk students in academic studies that lead to advanced degrees—degrees critically important in a knowledge economy…. The second critical contribution of the 1 to 1 learning environment is the engagement of students in everyday use of high-tech tools in problem solving, communication, resource acquisition, and data analysis—critical foundations for future knowledge work."

Findings like these point to the promise of 1-to-1 learning with laptop initiatives. But simply distributing computers to students and teachers does not guarantee these outcomes. Only the integrity of the implementation can impact the level of success. Sharing what initiatives have learned about "doing 1-to-1 right" will be critical.

Metiri Group, (2006a). 1 to 1 learning: a review and analysis. Retrieved September 30, 2006, Web site: http://www.apple.com/education/k12/onetoone

Metiri Group, (2006b). Technology in schools: what research says. Retrieved September 30, 2006, Web site: http://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/docs/education/TechnologyinSchoolsReport.pdf

Muir, M (2006). Lessons from Maine: An Interview with Bette Manchester. on Cue. Spring, 13-14,32-33.

Muir, M. Scott, N., & Chapdelaine, H. (2005) Technology integration. In Anfara, V. (Ed.). (2005). The Encyclopedia of Middle Grades Education. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.

Muir, M., Manchester, B., & Moulton J. (2005, Summer ). Special topic: learning with laptops. Educational Leadership, 62.

Muir, M., Knezek, G., Christensen, R. (2004). The Power of One-to-One: Early Findings from the Maine Learning Technology Initiative. Learning and Leading with Technology, 32 (3).

Manchester, B., Muir, M., Moulton, J. (2004). Maine: Maine Learns T.H.E. Journal, 31 (12), 14-16.

Muir, M. (2004). Laptops for learning: The Maine Learning Technology Initiative. Focus on the Middle School, 16 (4), 1-6.

Muir, M. (2004). Laptops for learning. Middle Matters, 12 (3), 1-3.

Muir, M., Knezek, G., & Christensen, R. (2004). The Maine Learning Technology Initiative: An exploratory study of the impact of ubiquitous technology on student achievement. (Available online at http://www.mcmel.org/MLLS)

Schacter, J. (1995). The impact of educational technology on student achievement. The Milken Exchange on Educational Technology. Retrieved January 20, 2005, from http://www.mff.org/publications/publications.taf?page=161.

Presenter Background

Dr. Mike Muir is an associate professor at the University of Maine Farmington, and Director of the Maine Center for Meaningful Engaged Learning (McMEL). McMEL provides information and resources, consulting and presentations, and research and evaluation on motivating underachievers, teaching and learning with technology, and middle grades education.

Dr. Muir has been a major university partner to the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI), the first statewide learning with laptop initiative, working with the Maine Governor’s Office , the Maine Department of Education, MLTI Staff, and teachers across the state. He has also worked with several district-level 1-to-1 initiatives in Massachusetts, Texas, and Louisiana, is director of the 1to1 Stories Project, and is a founding member of ISTE’s new 1:1 SIG.

Dr. Muir has done hundreds of presentations and keynotes at conferences and workshops on a variety of topics, including learning and teaching with technology. This includes presenting about Doing 1to1 Right, MLTI, and other topics related to 1-to-1, at large conferences such as NECC (2004), National Middle School Conference (2003, 2004, 2005), AALF (2006), the International Conference on Educational Multimedia (2002, 2004), One to One - One for All Symposium (2004, 2005), and the New England League of Middle Schools (2005).

Among Dr. Muir's numerous journal articles are four on Maine’s learning with laptop initiative. He has also written four books on educational technology and is currently working on several others.

Referenced Web Links

http://www.mainelearns.org/
http://www.mcmel.org/
http://www.1to1stories.org/
http://www.mcmel.org/MLLS/1to1PR/index.html