Blogs on 1:1 Implementation

At the first presidential debate, education made quite a stir, with both candidates talking about our nation's schools and teachers a number of times.

But education made it into the news elsewhere, too.

First, Education Secretary Arne Duncan made the case for why it's time to move to digital textbooks, and Khan Academy founder Salman Khan talked about the need for less lectures in schools. Also, a story from NPR highlighted the ongoing B.Y.O.D. trend, looking at some of the pros and cons.

The challenges facing a new teacher are clear: how to write a strong lesson plan, how to master the fine art of lesson delivery and how to keep kids engaged in a positive classroom environment are all high on the list. Add to that list the addition of mastering the use of technology tools to support instruction with students, and many a new teacher might go running for the hills!

This past week at Burlington High School, we started rolling out iPads for incoming freshmen. During this process, I couldn't help but reflect on what had occurred over the course of a year. Around this time last summer, BHS had roughly one thousand iPads ready to roll out to all students. The anticipation was great, the waters uncharted. During the 2011-2012 school year, we, the IT department and the teachers charted a course that led us to many exciting discoveries as well as many learning experiences.

There has been a lot of conversation and debate in multiple forums, both online and face-to-face, about schools adopting or already working in a 1:1 environment. While many of these conversations revert back to replacing teachers and what device is best, the real conversation begins with providing our students with the best learning environment possible.