Assignment 1: After having looked over these one-to-one initiative websites, go to your blog and answer the following questions:

·         What are the benefits to implementing a one-to-one initiative?

There are many benefits to implementing a one-to-one initiative. Technology is such a huge part of our students lives that why wouldn’t we be using it every day in our classrooms? In my kindergarten classroom almost always when you ask student what their favorite center is they will tell you computer center. Or if you ask them what their favorite part of school is they will tell you they love Mondays when we get to go to the computer lab. So how awesome would it be if we took their favorite part of school and used it all day every day. If we could get a computer or ipad in the hand of each student and create our lessons with the use of the technology in mind think of the things we could do! There are so many cool things out on the web today and it is sad that we can’t use them in our lessons every day. I would love for kids to be able to create things on the web, search for things on the web and just use it as often as possible. I think it would help to reach those students who are not interested in school because it is “boring”. Our kids today are used to fast paced everything so why not create our school day in the same way and get our kids excited about school and learning.

·         What are some potential barriers to implementing a one-to-one initiative?

I think there are some pretty big barriers to implementing a one-to-one initiative. First is the issue of funding a one-to-one initiative. We all know that right now it is a difficult to for schools. Budgets are tight and adding technology is not the first priority of most school districts. Getting everyone one board to support an initiative like this will be tricky. Second, having teachers on board to use the technology in their classroom could be another barrier. Of course you always have those teachers who are excited to try new things and use technology in your classroom. But for the number of excited teachers you have you will also have those who are resisting the change. Either because they are scared to use the new technology, think things are great the way they are and don’t need to be changed, or they are close to retirement and do not want to learn how to use the new technology because they are almost done. Finally, just giving staff members the knowledge they need for the district to successfully implement a one-to-one initiative. This will take training and time to effectively implement a one-to-one initiative.

·         How does the teaching and learning process change when every student has a laptop computer, or mobile device?

It changes a lot. I think it goes from our ‘old school’ way of feeding our kids the information they need to know to them going out and searching for it on their own or interacting with it and learning from it. It becomes a lot more student driven instead of teacher driven. It will be way different from how we do things now. Students can have chat groups for call outside of the school day where they don’t have to meet in a central location. Students will have more freedom (with guidance and rules of course) with how they learn the material. Teachers will have to change how they are running their classrooms. Lessons will look different from what they do now who students doing more of the searching of information themselves instead of it being given directly to them.

·         At this point in time, how would you respond if a school board member asked if your school should implement a one-to-one initiative?

I would say I think it is a great idea. I know money is tight and it is not the best time financial to do it but the amount of return you would get on student success would make it worth it. The benefits greatly outweigh the negatives.