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But Bill, lots and lots of schools have implemented laptop programs -
some for many years now. We have found that you don't need one laptop
per child - in fact, I believe that insisting each child having their
own laptop can stifle pedagogical progress. When each child has their
own laptop or they are working in a lab, the teacher is generally just
using the same teaching techniques and lesson plans they always have,
insisting on personal work, students working in isolation
(communicating, but in isolation) with the whole class doing the same
activity at the same time. The laptop struggles to break out from being
a glorified word-processor, file storage and email client to the off
the shelf tool that gets used as needed, to develop a solution for the
problem at hand.<br>
We have run with a one-between-two program here for the past couple of
years (I was skeptical as I had just come from a 1-1 school) and apart
from a couple of dedicated labs, we now deliberately aim for
one-between-two for all our technology infrastructure. It means
students <u>must</u> collaborate as teams on producing work and we are
being forced to develop methods for students to be able to collaborate-
but then produce work that reflects their own knowledge, not the groups
knowledge. It's tricky but I have found a very useful little tool that
enables that to happen in my classes and the rest of the staff have
adapted too! Some of us are creating digital portfolios, this requires
group prac work, but individual reflections. How do you do this with
one-between-two? You are forced to examine individual learning plans,
multiple lesson plans within a lesson, rather than the
one-size-fits-all approach that we have always done. (Primaries have
done this for years!) While 1/2 the class use the laptops for part of
an activity, the other 1/2 are doing another part. For us, this is also
essential to break up a 72 min period and help keep the students
focussed.<br>
One between two is cheaper too! <span class="moz-smiley-s3"><span>
;-) </span></span><br>
Cheers<br>
Cameron<br>
<br>
Bill Kerr wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:5d2dce520710211656v56cba3bdx699055e13ee8fa88@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">There is a large elephant in the room that no one has
referred to so far: the OLPC<br>
<br>
The one laptop per child non profit project not only plans to deliver
millions of laptops to third world children but has also become a hand
grenade in the commercial world - and has succeeded in forcing down the
price of other laptops now on offer
<br>
<br>
<div style="margin-left: 40px; font-style: italic;">"... the whole
global mind-think around technology has changed. </div>
<p style="margin-left: 40px;"><span style="font-style: italic;">No
longer is low cost computing in education a fantasy, no longer
are big technology companies secondary, and everyone wants to sell
technology into classrooms. Intel introduced </span><a
moz-do-not-send="true" style="font-style: italic;"
href="http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/brazil/olpc_classmate_mobilis.html">Classmate
PC</a><span style="font-style: italic;"> to Brazil, Asustek is </span><a
moz-do-not-send="true" style="font-style: italic;"
href="http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/intel/negroponte_100_laptop_asus.html">selling
Eee PC's</a><span style="font-style: italic;"> in the USA, and even
thin-client manufactures </span><a moz-do-not-send="true"
style="font-style: italic;"
href="http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/competition/stephen_dukker_anti_olpc_campaign.html">compare
themselves to OLPC</a><span style="font-style: italic;">."</span><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/countries/sales_inhibiting_xo_distribution.html">http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/countries/sales_inhibiting_xo_distribution.html</a></p>
How will schools and education departments in the wealthy west react to
the fact that in a few years we will have the capability for every
child to have their own laptop?
<br>
<br>
Will we treat them like mobile phones and ban them or try to figure out
a way to utilise them for optimal educational development?<br>
<br>
The use and misuse of computers in schools has up until now been based
around the idea that computers mainly belong in labs and / or that
access is limited. The fact of limited access has acted as a powerful
brake for many teachers not to extend their knowledge much beyond the
basics.
<br>
<br>
Most (all?) of the maths curriculum could be taught using laptops. In
fact MIT produced a series of books in the 80s for teaching much of
maths and aspects of language and art using logo.<br>
<br>
Shouldn't we factor this potential into the discussion? If we are
talking about the future it might be incorrect to assume that the
pattern of distribution of computers in schools will remain similar to
the present. <br>
<br>
-- <br>
Bill Kerr<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/">http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/</a><br>
<br>
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