Response: One-To-One Technology 'Is Really About Building Effective Relationships'

At Education Week By Larry Ferlazzo on April 12, 2014 11:08 AM

I wrote a response to One-to-One Technology "Is Really about Relationships"

EduStat: Students Come First Idaho' State Initiative for Technology

I was part of a team that presented for the EduStat University Conference in Boise Idaho. Idaho is implementing 1:1 in high schools statewide over a 3 year period. After writing a case study, Ted Hall, Jackson Hall, and I shared our work from the last 10 years in the session The Impact of 1:1 Computing on the Culture of Teaching and Learning.

Presentation Slides:

Edustat Casestudy

View more presentations from Alice Barr

One blogger's reaction.

#IDEdustat

Not Just for Middle Schoolers

By Alice Barr, Instructional Technology Integrator, Yarmouth High School

Yarmouth High School has extended Maine's MLTI program to its grade 9-12 students with gratifying results.

In 2002, Maine initiated the Maine Learning Technology Initiative. Every 7th grader in the state received a laptop, which remained with that student through middle school. In 2004, when the first class of MLTI students reached the ninth grade, our district grappled with the question: what next? The Yarmouth School Department superintendent at the time, Dr. Ken Murphy, had heard Angus King speak and shared the then-governor’s belief that technology immersion could be transformational for teaching and learning. Since the state-funded program did not extend to high school students, Yarmouth chose to self-fund the laptops for Grade 9 and all high school teachers. We then added one grade per year.

Read the rest of the article

Tech Forum 2011 in Boston

I had the privilege of being on the panel on The Evolving World of 1:1 at Tech Forum 2011 with Patrick Larkin, Andy Zitoli, Shelley Chamberlain and Bob Rainville

Description: From laptops to iPads and smart phones, the options for placing digital technology in students’ hands for 24-hour access have multiplied over the years. Who’s moving towards one-to-one and what implementation and hardware choices are they making as they try to balance the need for 21st century learning environments with network and security constraints and the realities of economic belt tightening?.

Here's my part of the slide show.

 It was a great day. I really enjoyed the size of the venue, and the quality of the presentations. You can go in to each presentation and look at the materials. Thanks to Tech Learning for a good day of learning. (#tltechforum)

Career Exploration for Juniors and Sophomores

All of our juniors and sophomores go to a 3 day job shadow we call Career Exploration. The purpose of the program is to help students begin to see what kinds of job possibilities might be available to them in the future. They go through the process of writing a resume, contacting a person in the community, and then sending their resume, cover letter, and contract to the potential supervisor. Once the paper work is done we work on logistics and what to wear.

The students then go to their respective "jobs". We (the faculty) get to visit them at their sites and see them in action. This year my advisees (a group I have every morning for homeroom for 4 years) are:

• at the NOAA (wonderful - as we had a Nor'Easter this morning)
• two are at bakeries (including a gluten free bakery)
• a physical therapist
• the DEA
• a vet 
• daycare center
• with an art teacher
• with a Director at the theater ( a very interesting schedule)
• at Maine Handicapped skiing
• at a printmaking/silkscreen business
• at marine biology aquarium

This diverse range of occupations represents the students' varied interests. Here's one example of what students are doing in the field. Students often are often asked to bring their laptops with them as they have to use them. One young man is at LLBean in the design department and was told that he would be creating a design for them. Last year we had some students put together a pitch for an advertisement.  The community is incredibly supportive of this program. We so appreciate them opening their business to our learners. 

Each students keeps a journal of what they did and interviews their supervisor. When they are done, we mail thank you notes. Later in the week, they will present to their parents and our advisor group. I can't wait to see their presentations! It's a great experience for everyone.

For information, here is the CEP website

Students present Laptops and Learning

On Friday, March 25th 5 sophomores from Yarmouth High School were invited to present to Bonny Eagle High School faculty for their Staff Development Day. The day was primarily technology focused, so they asked our students to talk about how they learn with laptops. The 5 students did their presentation in Google Docs so they could work on it outside of school. I checked in on the work the last day with 1 student helping me edit and tweak. This was a great process because the students are so busy and it's hard to get them together.

They presented on a podium in front of about 250 people. It was quite an experience! After presenting they took questions from the audience. They then were available to work with teachers in Google Apps sessions led by Cathy Wolinsky and Mike Arsenault, tech integrators from our district. We ask students to help us as much as possible when working with teachers. Students can give valuable feedback and suggestions on classroom projects. The students also learn what goes in to planning a project for students.

Here is the video of the entire presentation:

Here is just the questions and answer section. If you watch any of this one, go from 9:16 to the end. 

Thanks to Alex, Mackenzie, Jake, Jackson and Drew!
For more of our student work you can go to Yarmouth's You Tube Channel