Miguel Guhlin and I wrote the point/counterpoint article contributions for the March 2006 issue of Learning and Leading with Technology (available as a free PDF file.) Our topic was: “Should students or schools own the computers in 1:1 computing scenarios?”
ISTE has an online poll about this question, and I invite you to take a few seconds and express your view! If you want to elaborate on the reasons for your answer, I welcome you to do so with a comment here! (You can also email products at iste.org and your answer may be reprinted in their May issue.)
Many thanks to both Miguel and the editors of L&L for the invitation to write this piece. One to one learning with wireless technology devices will be the future of our students in the long term, and visionary school districts will make this a reality in the short term. How that vision is implemented and the successes as well as challenges experienced by school districts who choose to go down the 1:1 road will vary considerably, I think. Are any school districts currently permitting students in 1:1 environments to own their laptops, when the taxpayers have paid the bill for the technology hardware? If there are schools like this, I am not aware of them.
The schools I have read about where students own their laptops are schools where parents who choose to have their student in a laptop immersion pilot project classroom have been required to purchase the laptop themselves. This situation is not a good one, I think. I addressed this indirectly in my L&L article, but let me state it more plainly here: Schools must not suggest or require that their students purchase laptops. We don’t make K-12 students buy their own textbooks. Neither should we require students to buy their own laptops. A policy requiring that families purchase their own laptops is not only antithetical to the idea of a free and high-quality public education (I think the lawyer word is “adequate” but I think “high-quality” would be better,) but also would serve to further deepen rather than close the digital divide.
If students end up owning their own laptops, the strongest argument against this position is obsolescence. (Which Miguel brought up in his article, btw.) Maybe there is a proposal out there for 3 year leases on laptops, but a possibility for graduating seniors to walk out the door in May owning their computer? Judging by how many folks wanted to buy older iBooks from Henrico County, Virginia schools last year, I think it is a safe bet that most high school graduates would love to move on after graduation equipped with their own wireless computer.
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On this day..
- Code as Poetry in 4th Grade Scratch Club – 2018
- 2 Challenges: With STEM & iPads – 2014
- Growing Nimble Thinkers for the Creative Economy by Deborah Morrison and Glenn Griffin – 2013
- Cage-Busting Leadership by Rick Hess – 2013
- Options for Posting by Email (RIP Posterous) – 2013
- Green Screen Photo Effects On The Cheap – 2012
- K12 Panel at the 2012 Heartland eLearning Conference – 2012
- Why is cloud computing significant for college faculty? – 2012
- A Voice of Reason on US Education Policy – 2011
- The Power of Media Advertising: Ads Worth Spreading from TED – 2011