A Whole New World: Learning with a 1:1 Tablet Initiative

The Personal Computer, PC, initially meant that we had moved from the network workstation to an individual unit. A computer that operated on its own. One that could be in the workplace or in the home, but in the end it was a Productivity Computer. As a society through branding and ownership we separated the "PC" and the "Mac" groups. One group in the end was seen as a viable option for the home and the workplace and one was seen as a toy. This marketed personal impacted us for from Windows 3.1 through Windows 7. Microsoft coined the term smartphone and made the early tablet operating systems. These too, whether you had a Windows CE device or a Blackberry were work tools. They may have been personal in the fact that individuals carried them, but they were sparse, clunky, and truly designed with the productivity organization in mind. Lets be honest, the iPhone changed all that. It showed us that a personal device can be both truly personal and productive. It connected us with our work, our documents, our presentations, and our contacts but also allowed us to connect to the world in ways that we could not imagine. With Android following this lead, the two competing operating systems have pushed each other to create tools that are elegant, personal, and powerful. For those of us who imagine ourselves to be in a world of PC vs Mac or Android vs iOS we are stuck in a rut and missing the bigger picture. The world is changing. It is not the world we grew up in and we are not preparing our children for this world.

I entered Hillcrest school as a kindergartener in 1978. Mrs. Roush played the piano. We had art time. We read some. I even believe we might have taken naps. In fourth grade we studied states. In fifth grade we studied the country. In sixth grade we studied the world. There were reading groups. There was math. There was even a TI-99 in the library. In 1985, as a 7th grader at O'Neill Junior High, we first learned world history. I learned about the colonization, the British Empire, the separation of India and Pakistan, World Super Powers. It was the Cold War, US vs the Soviet Union, everything in dichotomous relationships. The teacher talked, we listened (sort of), and we wrote papers. This was my education, an education I was proud of.

This week, I saw this video. One I encourage everyone to watch:

We are no longer preparing our children for a dichotomous world, one that lacks information, or one that depends on utilizing productivity tools. We are preparing our children for an information rich world. One that surrounds us and needs innovative approaches that connect societies, and helps people solve great problems.

We began our 1:1 initiative in January last year as children and teachers spent 3-weeks units together using tablets at both home and school. We called them Learning Labs. The children learned. The teachers learned. We learned. Immediately the experience was transformative. Within days children were making a wide-range of products. We set up concepts to be explored and the children were creating videos, art, and writing stories in ways we could not imagine. As adults, we set up learning situations and content to be studied, and the children created a variety of products. They became the teachers, of the technology, the tools, and eventually the content to each other and to the adults. In 3-week units worlds were transformed in a way that we couldn't go back.

In August we began piloting 1:1 initiatives throughout our district. Over 1400 students in grades k-6, about 35% of our students in those age groups, began working with iPad minis. We have lived through the honeymoon of this is awesome and entered the realm of reality that this is what life looks like in a 1:1 initiative. There is great variance within our pilot classrooms yet common themes emerge. Kids are owning more of the learning. They are becoming partners in the teaching. The iPad mini truly is a personal device. It takes learning and makes it our own. It allows children to become experts in things and carry learning well beyond the classroom. Our teachers that have allowed their classes to use email find that the learning goes on between them and the students and between student groups well after the school day has ended. We have found tablets make a difference, children individualize. They make songs, movies, and artwork. They take pictures of their world and write about it. We have discovered that Explain Everything one of the most important tools in learning as it gives us insight into a child's thinking and allows us to share our work with our school community. We have learned that tablets are cross-curricular devices, being just as vital in Art or Music as they are in Reading and Math.

There is so much that we are learning, but mostly we are learning that tablets enable our children to be personal instructional leaders in the classroom. They create products with such diversity because of the nature of the tool and the capacity of our teachers to be open to such ideas. Students are innovative and creative because while they know they are working on a common learning target they are excited to share the unique ways in which they develop solutions and products. Our 1:1 devices are not the portable productivity pieces of PC era, but truly personal life and learning tools that allow for productivity but also humanity and imagination.

The tool is only one reason why we are being successful. The other important reason we are transforming as a learning institution is our teachers and principals. Our school district is a learning community. Staff are sharing, in every way possible. They understand that the technology is a tool, often a scary one at that, but it opens doors. Our pilot teachers are sharing with grade level partners, allowing each other to do things differently, but dialoguing about the successes and challenges they are facing. Our instructional coaches are meeting with individual teachers and groups, helping identify what the learning targets are and what activities/tools might help the students demonstrate mastery of those targets. Our teachers are creating free professional development opportunities to support each other and to connect with colleagues around them through activities such as Playdatedg58, ipadtacula, and the Student Involved in Technology conference. Then there is the twitter hashtag #dg58learns. 140 character snipits that are staff driven sharing. Resources, pictures, questions, and successes.

We just started our journey. We look how far we have come and we look forward to the road ahead. We have had great leaders that have put us on this path, but it is our path now. Any of us can do this. Any of us can start this in our districts. It starts with a dialogue, a hashtag, and a vision. We are preparing children for a different world. In order to do that, we too need to see our world in different ways.