OneToOne Impacts - Students in the drivers seat!!

This week I had several messages from students. Some came as an email, some as a moodle message, some in conversation. All the messages told me about the impact of the laptops on their learning.

In the past students only used technology when they had a specific assignment in a class and the teacher gave them time to work on it in one of the computer labs.  But now they have access to the technology ALL the time. They can use it when they want. The power has shifted from the teachers to the students.

Here are some of the things I heard from students this week:

"I just completed unit 6-6 in tutor" (Math tutor software)
"My restaurant just made a profit!" (Virtual Restaurant Simulator)
"I am working on Khan Academy to learn trig."
"I want to learn about web design."
"I want to learn how to make an app."

These students were completing work that was not assigned as homework, because they wanted to accomplish a goal! They are starting to see learning as a reward in itself not just a grade.

I have several other students that are going to be starting a class on HTML web design. It is not in their schedule, they are not looking for a grade, they want to learn! They are going to be completing a course developed by another teacher (in moodle) from one of our other schools. They came to me and asked for this class, it is not a requirement.

The laptops are placing a wealth of learning opportunities in front of our students. Now we need to help teach them how to find and learn without a classroom! Or do we need to help our teachers learn to teach with out the walls of the classroom? How will teachers teach classes that are not on their schedule?

"Just using the technology"

This is our first year of a one-to-one laptop program in our school. Lately it seems that I am being told a story by a teacher or a student and I realize that it would have been different without the technology. Everyone is "just using the technology" and they don't even realize how it has impacted their learning.

The stories that I hear contain information about better communication between students, between students and teachers but the people telling the story are focusing on the results not the technology that made it work. This reminds me of the impact I experienced in industry when email became widespread. Can you imagine writing a memo, photo copying it and having it placed into the mail box? We don't do this in the "real world" anymore so why would this be the way we communicate in school?

I have heard of students emailing teachers questions about their assignments and getting answers that have helped them to complete the assignment. This has allowed students and teachers to communicate with out having to search the halls of the school to find them to ask a question and get an answer.

Students are starting to take advantage of their own down time. I have seen some students look to see what they would be learning about in their next class by looking at the teacher's moodle site. Sometimes they have even began to think about or complete the do now before they enter the classroom.

Students are now able to carry almost all of the resources for all their classes all the time! It's all in the laptop. This has allowed students to review information or jot down a thought about a topic at anytime during the school day.

The challenge now is to invision what would our school look like today if the technology went away?

Planning Planning Planning

This is the start of a blog that I hope to use to capture the progress of a school that will be going through a major transformation this year. I will try to share the good of what works along with what is not working so that maybe other may be able to help us.
In order to improve student achievement and engagement I will be working with the following tools.

• Google Apps for Education. (Major training and roll out for Sept 1)
• Moodle. (Entering my 5th year, this year will help others to get it rolling.)
• PowerSchool.
• Drupal (Portal, System Integration.)

My current task is to develop a set of questions that can be used in an interview format with teachers to help access their comfort with new and existing technology in the school and how they use it to improve student learning.

What questions would you ask teachers?