“Equity, Access, and Opportunity” – Harvard Education Letter

Today I received in the mail, my copy of the Harvard Education Letter, published by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The cover article focuses on how “despite the challenges” more schools are adopting one-to-one laptop programs. The article goes on to say that over the last several years, many schools across the United States have initiated laptop programs and according to a recent survey more that 25% of the 2,500 largest school districts have at least one full grade of students working with laptops. What I found refreshing was that the article states that many educators believe that in time, these powerful tools, capable of allowing students to create, design, invent and publish will be “as ubiquitous as lunchboxes in students’ backpacks.”

While the research is still out and many studies have confirmed mixed results with regards to gains in student achievement, as a teacher of writing, there is a clear indication that student performance in writing increases and improves when working in a one-to-one laptop program. An example of this could be taken from my Creative Writing class today. Students and I are exploring poetry as a multidimensional form of expression. Today, my budding, young writers were asked to bring in a set of poems that they would share with one another in small groups. The purpose was to reach each other’s poetry and then engage in a conversation on providing one another feedback. I provided the groups with a rubric/outline for the discussion points and feedback areas they could focus on. This happened with paper copies of drafts, circling the tables and students writing in paper notebooks.

Now imagine for a moment, 18 students take out laptops, upload their poems to a blog or wiki. They read through and provide comments, mashup, link, respond using technology like VoiceThread.

The potential is endless, the opportunities countless. We are hoping to take the plunge and move to a one-to-one next year in our Middle School. I will be sure to keep you posted.