Microsoft Educator Network

1:1 Learning 10 Things to Keep In Mind When Planning 1:1 Conversion The process of converting a school or district to a 1:1 teaching and learning model can be full of unexpected challenges. Here are 10 things for administrators and leaders to keep in mind as they begin the planning process for district digital conversion (DDC) projects. 1) Have a clear definition of success and how it will be measured. Take time during planning to create realistic and adaptable goals. 2) Do it yourself is often the most expensive approach. Understand true costs and seek to ...

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1:1 Learning Sorry, but the type of device still matters. Several years ago, a seasoned 1:1 educator declared "the OS wars are over...and nobody won." What he meant was that despite the great debate between Windows and Mac OS in schools, when you boiled it down to accomplish the work of teaching and learning it really didn't matter. Obviously, he was a strong proponent of manufacture agnostic administration and BYOD, but I think he had a point. The latest "war" is being waged between laptops and tablets (and smartphones to a degree) and I have several ...

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1:1 Learning Mobile learning: new kid on the block? Welcome to 2004 (and no, there is no typo here!)– after a year of planning and conceptualization Nokia, Globe Telecom, the Department of Education, Pearson Foundation and Ayala Foundation started to implement the in the Philippines. Mobile devices and the Nokia Education Delivery solution were harnessed to allow for downloading quality educational materials on math, science, English and values education in the most . Technology combined with lesson plans that follow the primary education ...

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1:1 Learning Next Generation Classroom Management There’s no denying that technology will soon become ubiquitous in the classroom. Recently, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski challenged schools and companies to get digital textbooks in students' hands within five years. With the push to go digital, it’s only a matter of time before 1:1 implementation is widely adopted in our schools. With 1:1 implementation comes the challenges of managing a classroom full of students with their ...

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1:1 Learning Stop the 1:1 Madness!! I know…this is kind of an odd post to be included in the PIL 1:1 Hot Topic…please bear with me. My district is what could be classified as a 1:1 district. We have given our students in grade 8-10 the opportunity to extend their learning by distributing Windows 8.1 tablets. By 2015-2016 school year all students in grades 6-12 will have our tablets….with dreams of extending it K-12. I’ve read the literature and connected with other 1:1 districts…so I’m in…I get it…I “drink the Kool-Aid.” Early in ...

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1:1 Learning BYOD: Not For Me At the Global Forum last week, I had some conversations with other educators about the idea of Bring Your Own Device in One-to-One programs. I’ve been involved with Kent School District’s One-to-One since 2005, from planning to teaching and now supporting. The short answer to my opinion is this: I don’t like it. Support One of the reasons I don’t like BYOD is because it is difficult to support from a centralized perspective. In my district, we struggle to help students through home wireless ...

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1:1 Learning Adopting 1:1 in a Massachusetts school Learn why the Williston Northampton School in Massachusetts chose the Surface Pro with Windows 8 for every student and faculty member to help bring one-to-one learning to life. ...

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1:1 Learning Deploying a Successful 1-to-1 Strategy. Mar 12th at 5:00pm, room 116/117 @ the Microsoft Global Forum in Barcelona. To learn more about the forum please use this link In order to be successful with a 1:1 initiative, it is prudent to have a clear vision with actionable and measurable goals. As a leader, it is important to look at the vision for your school and lay out clear expectations. You also must understand the changing role of educators, provide appropriate levels of professional development, as well as design a strong implementation plan that includes parent communication, security, budget and ...

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1:1 Learning Disrupt? No, Enable! Reading “Monuments of Tech” by Quentin Hardy, in Sundays NY Times (), I thought about applying scenarios presented to traditional schools. At the Facebook (FB) offices in Menlo Park, California, no one has an office. Space is mentally and emotionally reconfigured to encourage experimentation, risk, trial and error and personal and group analysis. The unofficial motto is ‘hack’…we’ve learned the downside of malicious hacking activities – but at FB they’ve adopted this in the engineering ...

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1:1 Learning Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes It is a human condition to resist ‘change’. It is also a natural tendency to debunk solutions to obstacles that go against common practice and cultural mores. It is even more common, in my experience anyway, to be able to imagine or create solutions and scenarios outside the proverbial box we tend to use as a fortress against ‘change’. ‘Change’ meaning practices and strategies with which we are unfamiliar, that take one outside a known comfort zone, and cause internal strife. For these reasons...

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1:1 Learning For a long time, I had reservations about 1:1 projects but now I've come to believe that 1:1 can have significant positive impacts - why? For a long time, I had reservations about one to one projects. It seemed to be yet another approach to learning which leaned heavily on supply, with an expectation that wonderful things would happen when devices were supplied to schools and classes. Of course, there are some who have known better for a long time, and have learned from and wisely developed their approach to 1:1 projects. My epiphany came during a two day meeting with teachers associated with EUSchoolNET's iTEC project. There we ...

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1:1 Learning We Needed to Talk about 21st Century Learning..so we did A special group of education professionals came together on the 21st January in the House of Lords to talk about learning in the 21st century. As well as UK delegates, they came from the USA, Canada and Brussels. Their backgrounds included academia, education, politics, business, the charity sector and the media. The objectives of the event were: • To forge an alliance between the One-to-One Institute in the USA and the e-Learning Foundation in the UK and other partners who share our vision • To ...

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1:1 Learning 1:1 Learning - When Have You “Arrived”? Whether your school is still planning 1:1 implementation or started when 1:1 was a “laptop program,” there is value in knowing what it means to “arrive” at success. What does “arrival” look like? How do we measure success? Conventional wisdom says 1:1 implementation requires a clearly stated rationale to support the time and money investments and to assist with program evaluation. One common reason for going 1:1 -- schools need to reflect the “real world outside of school” where technology is ...

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1:1 Learning Why 1:1 Programs in our Schools are Obsolete If you are considering a 1:1 program for your school, you may want to stop and reconsider. There are volumes written about the need to equip today's students with technology to ensure they have the tools necessary for success in the world today. For many schools, they look forward to the day when every student in the class has a computer. But I’m beginning to think this isn’t enough. First, a bit of background. I work with a team of exceptionally bright and passionate people who are not ...

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1:1 Learning Learning "About" vs. Learning "How" One of the biggest challenges in any 1:1 program is professional development strategy. Schools often struggle with maximising time in teaching teachers how to most effectively teach in a ubiquitous computing environment. PD in these situations often breaks down into two categories: "About" and "How." When learning "About," teachers are taught the pedagogic frames of being good educators in 1:1 classrooms. They learn about curriculum design, teaching methods, classroom management, student needs ...

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1:1 Learning Common Ground in the 1:1 World The inaugural International 1:1 Computing Conference last week in Atlanta drew participants from around the world. Alicia Banuelos, San Luis, Argentina, kicked of the event describing how she led the ‘constitutional right’ for students in San Luis to have Internet access. Her amazing true life story laid the groundwork for many tales of 1:1 challenges, successes, leaders and research. It was striking how the work has evolved and stories have changed over the course of a decade. True, the ...

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1:1 Learning Five ways to save money when implementing the 1:1 program We welcome visits by public and private schools in Turkey who are interested in the 1:1 program, mainly for two reasons: we are happy to contribute to education, and this also gives us a chance to review our own program. Since we implemented the 1:1 program, representatives from several schools visited us. They asked questions and shared their concerns about the transition period, the technical infrastructure, the training of the teachers, and the student learning outcomes. They had one question...

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1:1 Learning A Field Trip to the Garbage Dump Imagine if your child came home from school with a permission slip to go on a field trip... ... to the garbage dump. "Um..." you say since you don't really understand "modern" education. So you read further. "We will be dropping your kids off at the front gate of the dump, with the objective of finding something of value buried in all the trash. There will be no adult supervision on this field trip". Would you sign? If you answered yes, then I will be contacting the local Children's Services...

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1:1 Learning Well Implemented 1:1=Student Achievement AND Revenue Positive Results Many industry sectors have automated and transformed practices/systems with technologies. Education has been slow to follow suit. One frequently cited reason for this delay is lack of funds. Schools just haven’t allocated the necessary initial capital to retool systems through robust technologies…including the systems of teaching and learning. Few research projects have looked at revenue positive results (increased tax revenues) that can be attributed to education technologies. Project RED ...

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1:1 Learning A New Day for 1:1 Last week I was honored to be a key speaker at the California Education Technology Professionals Association (CETPA) Pasadena conference. The session was full of interested, passionate educators seeking to advance or begin a 1:1 program. Brianne Ford, outgoing president of CETPA, arranged this session because of the high level of interest among her CA colleagues. The most impressive aspect for me is the number of educator administrators seeking to get 1:1 right. They want to follow the path to...

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1:1 Learning Stop the 1:1 Madness!! Stop the Madness of Blindly Dumping Technology into Classrooms Beyond the shiny tools, it takes courageous leadership and solid planning to provoke the deep meaningful change that we want for our students. Please, let’s get passed the useless debate about whether or not we should have technology in school. It must become the norm. No question. Kids are extremely plugged-in and engaged outside the classroom while increasingly, they’re tuning out in the classroom. If the purpose of education is ...

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1:1 Learning Come to the International 1:1 Computing Conference Sign up today while there are still openings. A wonderful event for early and long term engagers of 1:1 computing! file:///C:/Users/Owner/Dropbox/International%201to1%20Conference/Marketing/Email%20HTML%20Pushes/Program%20Announcement%20for%20Lynette%20Owens.html...

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1:1 Learning Arizona Leaders Work Toward 1:1 Last week ten Arizona school districts came together for the Southwest Leadership Summit. Teams of key district decision makers – superintendents, assistant superintendents, CIOs/CTOs, curriculum and instruction and finance officials, teacher leaders – spent two full days of beginning or expanding their plans for creating successful 1:1 environments. Intel and One-to-One Institute We got deep into the weeds on the significance of leadership for second order change, how to lead and create a ...

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1:1 Learning Making A Way In A Wasteland When you think about a wasteland, you probably don't think technology. More likely, you think of a vast, barren openness that has been destroyed by storms or fire or even war. If you do happen to conjure up an image of a technology wasteland, it would be more like a vast dumping ground of devices that seem go out of date almost daily. But there is another meaning for wasteland… a land that is uncultivated. And that is the kind of wasteland I see when I look across the vast openness of education...

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1:1 Learning Successful BYOD program BYOD? BYOT? BYOM? Do you feel lost in the abundance of acronyms? Whatever name you give to the program you put into practice in school, I believe that we can only understand whether the program has been successful if one day we don’t feel a need to name it. When our new headmaster, who took office in the second year of our 1:1 program, asked me “How can we understand whether the 1:1 is successful?”, this is the answer I gave him. He smiled. I did, too. Recently I saw that one of the Partners in ...

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1:1 Learning 1:1 fights bullying How can a 1:1 initiative can have an advantage in approaching and tackling social/school problems such as bullying 5th grade students at Kolossi Primary School are now ready to present to the rest of the school and all the parents ways to deal with bullying and minimize physical and verbal abuse. How did the whole project begin? 1st step- Online research The whole project began with an online research regarding bullying. Students read and analyzed articles, presentations and videos on bullying...

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1:1 Learning Interested in #BYOD? Become a #ConnectedEducator! So, you’re interested in supporting bring your own device (BYOD) where you work? Congratulations! You are not alone, but you will need support. There is no better way to support your students for real-world learning than providing settings they encounter in the real world. One of the best ways to get started and keep going is by developing your professional learning network of others who are also involved in this work. Here are some resources to do just that. Learning Community Join a vibrant...

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1:1 Learning Check for Understanding via Polls When I was teaching Middle School daily, sometimes I would sense the students weren’t getting the concepts I was trying to convey. Sometimes I would stop and say “how’s this going?” – and the students would tell me. They’d describe in depth and relevance what they didn’t understand, and start brainstorming suggestions. There would be a great discussion and we’d review through their ideas on how to change the approach. Then we’d try one or two of the suggestions. Maybe once a term we’d do this. ...

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1:1 Learning Five Steps for Implementing a Successful 1:1 Learning Environment: Step 1: Define the Goals of your 1:1 Program: A 1:1 environment should be the goal of every learning institution; however, this is not about devices, it's about access. I imagine every school superintendent, principal, and teacher would agree that it is in their best interest to provide their students with the best access to the most current, scholarly information available. There is no doubt that this idea is embedded in every school's mission statement. So let's dig a little into the question ...

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1:1 Learning How deep can knowledge be? How can we guide students towards deeper knowledge with 1:1 techniques? Learning is not a digital process, even if we test and assign discrete marks to students’ levels in a particular subject, according to their progress or achievement. Learning is more of a kaleidoscopic analogic development, that we try to understand or stimulate with diversified inputs. In a one-to-one environment, we have the opportunity to automate need detection, personalize reinforcement activities and diversify project...

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1:1 Learning Back-To-School Night Whether you are starting 1:1 program or it is well established at your school, Back-To-School-Night is the perfect time to make your technology related expectations clear to parents. In a 1:1 environment the learning looks very different from the environment they were taught in. It is highly likely that your students’ parents never took anything more valuable than a calculator to school. I recommend that teachers educate the parents (& students) on the following topics: Responsible Use Policy -...

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1:1 Learning 1-to-1 Observations Observations about 1:1 for the classroom: 1-to-1 is about the people not devices – the educators, the students, the parents, and administrators – and making sure voices are heard. Teachers who empower student voices to help with decisions, choices, and classroom norms will transform their classrooms. Every classroom is different and how 1:1 is used will be different for every teacher and every grade and subject. An online learning community is vital — one that every student can access – to ...

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1:1 Learning 5 ideas to strengthen the home-school connection in the 1:1 classroom Family involvement is important to student success in every classroom. In 1:1 classrooms, the traditional note home in the backpack can be replaced with new methods allowing innovative educators to access a whole new set of tools that can strengthen the home-school connection. If you’re still connecting with parents the way you always have, here are some ideas to update your practice. 1) Open Access - Make sure you provide time for parents to access computers and the internet at your school....

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1:1 Learning Key Elements of An Effective 1 to 1 Classroom Teacher Effective teachers are always going to be successful. Throwing technology in the mix can add a level of complexity. But for most teachers, technology propels their effectiveness to a new level. So what are some of the teaching tips, tricks and tools of truly effective teachers specifically in a 1:1 program? First and most obvious, strive for consistent use of current technology and resources. Educators no longer have the luxury of developing detailed lesson plans that have the shelf life of a ...

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1:1 Learning 1:1 and School Culture Our high school is starting the tenth year of having a laptop for every student and teacher. Maine has been fortunate, in 2002, Governor Angus King proposed a visionary project; a digital learning initiative - all students in Grade 7 have a laptop to use in school and at home. In 2004, our district chose to continue the plan into high school. When we rolled out , we didn’t have any models to refer to, but we knew this project had to be about good teaching and learning. Our journey has been an ...

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1:1 Learning It is not about teaching, it’s about learning! Schools shouldn’t exist just to provide a working space for teachers, but to offer learning scenarios for students. Personalization in education, and student-centred learning designs have proved to be the main orbital change that education has made in recent years. During the 20th century, traditional curricula have mainly targeted content knowledge as the principal objective in the classroom. The 21st century started with a clear revolution that put students’ individual needs in the centre of ...

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1:1 Learning Blogging "For the Love of Learning" Every day we come across a new web 2.0 technology. None has been as effective as blogging, not even those which I predicted to be very meaningful in education. In spite of its sequential, text-based and personal structure, educators and students try to address the global world with blogs. Many people tried to answer the question “Why do we write blogs?” In my opinion, Olga Dysthe’s “presentation writing” concept materializes in blogs. This writing style allows you to organize your thoughts and ...

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1:1 Learning How much should I integrate technology? Last week was our teacher orientation week. There were over forty new teachers at (KIS), and several of them have never taught at a 1:1 school before. For some of the teachers the pervasiveness of the technology at KIS can be intimidating. There are several teachers who run nearly paperless classes, and many of our teachers also have incorporated the flipped classroom model into their teaching. This can be quite intimidating for our new teachers. Inevitably the question from these new teachers ...

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1:1 Learning Learning Management System(LMS) When schools plan to move to the 1:1 laptop program and as they implement it, their major concern is the development and sharing of the content. While I understand their apprehension, after two years of experience with the 1:1 program, and research and school visits for several years, I am beginning to think that this isn’t such a big challenge. I believe that digital content should be the product of a collective task over time. If practice and digital content development are aligned, the ...

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1:1 Learning Changing Times; Good News on 1:1 Front The times really have changed in the universe of education technology implementation-especially in the world of 1:1. I don’t have quantifiable data to share – but can report that in the past 12 months, 90%+ of requests One-to-One Institute receives for support come from schools/districts/states and countries wanting a roadmap for getting it ‘right’. In our first six years of operation, the same percentage of requests emanated from needs to ‘fix’ what had begun; retool from having purchased tech ...

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