1:1 Netbook Roll-Out
1:1 Laptop Programme success stories. Common themes from diverse implementations The brief included: "The Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI) is the largest and only statewide 1:1 initiative in the USA. Encompassing every public school 7th and 8th grade student and every educator teaching grades 7 through 12, MLTI has 70,000 laptop computers deployed across the State.... Maine has deployed over 155,000 laptops and 800 wireless networks in the last 8 years. If there are mistakes to be made, we've made them. Learn from Maine's successes and failures to help ensure a successful 1:1 program in your school."
Teaching and Learning thoughts: - Teacher Preparation is essential
- One year before students have the devices the teachers need a laptop and a data projector of their own
- BUT don't wait until staff are fully trained to give the kids their netbook - they will never be fully trained for what is around the corner!
- Use online communication tools with teachers to support their learning, to collaborate and co-ordinate eg Google Apps
- Hold regular teacher meetings where these questions are asked; "What are you doing that's working?" and "What are you doing that you are having challenges with". And record the answers in an online space.
- Get teachers out of school to state and district (cluster) meetings to share their learning and needs
- Every staff meeting book 10 minutes to have a teacher show something that is working
- Don’t teach software - teaching learning, using the software
Principals need to be attending the professional development alongside the teachers
- It won’t make a bad teacher better, but once you have taught a 1:1 class you will never want to teach in another way again
Leaders thoughts - Good leadership is critical. You need to learn to do it yourself. Leaders need netbooks & need to practise what the kids are doing.
- 4 leadership things:
- common vision
- positive pressure & support k
- provide pd & on demand support
- celebrate success (baby steps)
- You need solid alignment.
Pedagogical thoughts: - The pedagogy must be different. Putting a device in the hands of every student and continuing to teach in the same way we were taught is not going to work.
- Does it move the needle? i.e make kids learn better/faster (like asTTle speedo)
- Tom's River 30% improvement. Every kid did all their homework.
- The devices are more engaging than pen & paper. As exciting as pen & paper were 200 yrs ago.
- Technology has life outside of class. Its part of kids' life & they use it after hours.
- "We need to move from what to how" "We need active learners"
- Use the stuff 50 - 70% of the day. Its a way to extend the school learning day without changing the hours of instruction. Comes from time on task
- The reason many IT in education studies show no effect from IT is because the IT's don't get used often enough. 50 -70% is the trick.
- Maslow's hierachy of needs for 2010 says I will leave home with keys, phone & plastic.
- In the UK school kids smoking is going down & kids with data plans going up.
- The average American kid uses a smartphone for 10hrs/day.
- For children tech is like oxygen invisible but essential
- In the US they found that 60-70% of the text books they used were available online or as pdfs or podcasts
Parent and Community (Whanau) thoughts: - Insist that parents come in to school for training before the individual student is allowed to take a netbook home
- Newsletters in a variety of forms are essential for communication
- Ongoing training of parents (at school) should be done by children - but always mix it up. Don't have kids train their own parent!
- By product of this is that PARENTS use technology more at home
- Send the netbooks home. Research shows that sending the netbooks home results in improved test scores.
Technical thoughts: - Augmentation is a direct tool substitute with functional improvement. Don't expect change if this is the most you're doing.
- Modification; is a significant redesign
- Redefinition creation of new tasks previously inconceivable
- When you initiate this work you need a design goal:
- A personal digital device @ the pt. of learning as defined by the learner.
- No student without a device for more than one school day. Once teachers have kids with no laptop they go to plan B. Many never go back to plan A.
- In your RFP process ask for a solution not a price. Tell vendors what you really need.
- Give your functional requirements. Don't over define your specs. Define your service levels
- The best economy of scale comes from having a single device type. It also gives one throat to choke if performance or service delivery doesn't meet the design goals
- Get the successful device bidders to make & install the image. Image is everything. You battle test the image.
- The Maine image is designed by MLTI and built & installed by Apple, including all accounts, admin, & non admin. They use bootable usb drives with images on them for reboot & reimage.
- Configurations are device based. No servers, no domains, no AD/OD
- Follow the 5 minute rule and then re-image
- Have a pile of spare devices
- They have a quick prompt form for machines that don't go. We should use google for this.
- They do trend tracking. What breaks keep happening. Inform supplier & seek changes
- Don't ever charge batter with l/top in a sleeve. It cooks the processor.
- Most insurance plans do not cover vandalism. Whole state of Maine does not insure. Buy a buffer pool. Better than insurance & much cheaper. Liquid spills fall back on parents & kids. Theft machines just get replaced.
- Damage results are directly related to the adults not the kids i.e school leadership, teacher management and lessons that control frequency of use. High use = less damage.
- Get a machine with a battery to last a whole day. Stuffed batteries should be replaced free of charge.
- Decent bags make a difference The zipper must be on top. Machines must go home @ night. Less problems for the school & more responsibility taken by parents & students. Parents login for parent work.
- Less breakage occurs in netbooks that are being used all the time than those that are stored a lot!
- Breakage is inversely related to HOW the technology is being used
What they are being used for makes a huge difference. If the kids see classes/learning as boring.... breakage and theft goes up
- More breakage occurs with laptops than netbooks
- Need a regular weekly meeting to review challenges and highlight those that need to be urgently fixed
- Infrastructure - always double the bandwidth you think is necessary.... and double it every year. You will never have too much
- Every classroom needs its own managed access point for wireless
Student Thoughts - Students MUST be used as technicians. You will never be able to employ enough adults.
- After trial and error, student technicians fell into two layers; kids who enjoy 'fixing' and problem solving, and kids who organise and administer the requests for repairs
- All netbook issues are logged with the kids who organise the repair scheduling - they cope with the stress being generated by kids with dysfunctional netbooks
- The hands-on techie kids liaise with the adult technicians and work through the job schedules. This way they are not having to interface with aggrieved peers
- Have two old desktop computers in the back of the room as fall backs for kids who left netbook at home or have it in for repairs. Don't replace with another netbook!
- It is not worth insuring netbooks. Cheaper to replace them.
- Use old laptops (especially those with dead batteries) as desktops in back of classroom - for when a kid has one out for repairs OR when kid has been inappropriate - give them one of those :)
- Filtering/Firewalls solution: The best solution they have found is the one they call the GOYA solution (Get Off Your A***) “Teach your teachers to get up and walk around the room” to actively monitor what students are looking at on their screens!
Work-life balance thoughts - You need to look after yourself because retooling school changes teachers lives. There will be kid contact & work in the evenings. Make sure you know when to go home and when to stop @ night. It creeps up like the frog in a pot experiment.
- We need to work out how to deal with the change on a personal level.
Conclusion Be willing to be transformed. How dare we think we can transform school or the lives of kids if we will not be transformed ourselves.
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