Recently I spoke to a group of 14 principals from Thailand who were investigating Australian schools that have a 1:1 laptop program. When I was approached I immediately thought 'Awesome! I can show them this and that and we can do this and the students can get this ready and show them this task ...' Then as I found myself speaking to some students who had some creative uses of laptops with their learning, I stopped myself from the promotion side of things and remembered when I was new to the idea of 1:1 laptops. I wanted to find every problem, difficulty and essentially how my job would be made harder. I changed my tact when preparing the students and said 'be honest - go and get the best files/applications that help you with your learning. Tell me why it's better to do that task on a laptop'. With not much else, the boys did this, it was honest. Having worked through this idea some more, here are my top 5 difficulties for running a 1:1 laptop classroom.
#1: NETWORK/ADMIN ISSUES
These are usually out of anyone's control, but it is so frustrating to have a lesson planned, a webpage saved, and email sent to students etc etc and them not be able to access it. Having said that, I have been more creative with thinking on my feet!
#2: FLAT BATTERY / BROKEN LAPTOP
A frustration because it shouldn't happen! Students running out of charge toward the end of the day is only topped by students running out of charge at the start of the day! This doesn't happen often, but trying to organize a replacement activity for this one or two students adds to the excitement of a day in a 1:1 classroom. Accidents happen, and we realize that broken laptops will happen.
#3: JUSTIFYING THEIR EXISTENCE
This has only been a rare conversation, probably not one that detractors from the 1:1 idea would bring up to a teacher, but still annoying that people can't see the benefits. Thankfully parents are generally supportive, once they are aware of what's happening for their child. Technology obviously isnt going to go away anytime soon, so laptops MUST be used in schools. How their used is the key.
#4: DISTRACTED STUDENTS
There are many reasons why students are drawn away from the task at hand when using a laptop. Despite software monitoring being available, my feeling is that it is an indicator that the work has little relevance to the students. Hard to ensure everything is relevant, but you are less likely to find distracted student if they are enjoying and engaged in their learning.
#5: SEARCHING FOR THE BEST
Seems hardly a difficulty, and more 'best practice' however trying to find an application, web resource, quiz, keynote etc. That does exactly what you want for your students is difficult. A constant search for good sites drives me away from looking on a bad day! There are more and more apps being developed and web sites being created for the education sector, pleasingly more and more are being made by teachers or with a teacher's hat on... Not just 'this will be good for schools' attitude from a developer who is removed fro the education setting.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? PLEASE COMMENT ON YOUR BIGGEST DIFFICULT OR ROAD BLOCK WITH THE IDEA OF 1:1 LAPTOPS...
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