http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2014/06/18/gp-blended.html
The article discusses the benefits of going 1:1 six years ago in the Mooresville, NC, school district. While Nancy Gardner, an English teacher, was initially skeptical about the program, she kept an open mind. Having the devices led to teachers working more collaboratively than they had before, and working across disciplines. She also credited the program in encouraging teachers to take a more student-centered approach to teaching. In her own classroom, students sit at tables rather than rows of desks, using their laptops to research and work collaboratively. The devices also led to more opportunities for professional development with the teachers working in professional learning teams to share strategies and analyze students results from formative assessments. The professional development continued during the summer with staff leading training sessions on digitally oriented instruction, as well as teachers going to other districts in the area to lead professional development.
According to Carri Schneider, the director of policy and research at Getting Smart, when blended learning is done correctly, it gives teachers the opportunity to differentiate instruction and to work with small groups of students while the rest of the students continue to be engaged in their own classroom related activities and assignments.
With all the positive aspects of blended learning and 1:1 schools, many teachers still remain skeptical because they fear top down mandates and they fear another debacle like the Los Angeles Unified District. Others are in school districts that have gone 1:1, but just handed the teachers the devices and expected them to be used in instruction without proper teacher training. Carri Schneider addressed this issue as schools making the mistake of leading with technology rather than with their goals for teachers and students.
Schneider's last comment is important because it relates to never putting technology before the curriculum. Many schools receive grant money for technology and buy devices without considering what the goals are for the curriculum, the students, or the teachers. I agree that technology should never be purchased and put in the hands of teachers without first considering the curriculum and the training needs of the teachers. In my district, we have two carts of Chromebooks that can be checked out by the staff. Because there has not been any training, only a few teachers took advantage of taking one home over the summer. There also isn't time for training through professional learning teams. These are huge obstacles implementing a 1:1 program
Your own experience with your Chromebooks in your building show how important it is to train staff on how to utilize the resource. I know Jodie and Alex also have/had issues with this in their building as well. We also discussed that teachers are finding their own time to learn these things. It makes the mandate issue interesting. You want everyone to utilize this amazing resource, but it must be done in a beneficial way.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree with Jessica more. It is so important to train teachers on these devices when getting them because otherwise they will be sitting on a shelf or in a cabinet unused , collecting dust. We don't have Chromebooks in our school but we have iPads and I think if more teachers were trained at the very beginning right when we got them then more teachers would be eager and more willing to use them in their classrooms. Some teachers are motivated to learn on their own, while others just wait for a professional development and/or a training that might never exist. It is extremely frustrating having these devices such as iPads, Chromebooks, etc and teachers not using them to their full potentials!
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