From 1:1 Computing to 1:The World?

This past Saturday, we met with our 5th grade team that has been implementing the 1:1 iPad Pilot. Many great reflections and actions came from the day's discussions, including a stop-doing list (à la Jim Collins) for the new year and collaborating with the students on our concept map of skills and dispositions of the successful 5th grader. I noted that it's time to change the name of the blog we use to communicate with our parent community from "ACDS iPad Pilot" to something more reflective of the blended learning our students are doing almost daily now. Tools such as screencasting, Haiku, a class blog, and apps on the iPad such as ScreenChomp, Kakooma, and others are constantly employed to take student learning to a higher level. Indeed, our teachers noted that students were showing more independence and taking initiative.

Margi, our 5th grade Math/Science teacher, commented in agreement with my suggestion to change the name and observed that 1:1 Computing is a misnomer for the kind of work our students are doing and the objectives we had set for the pilot year last spring. 1:1 Computing denotes isolation rather than collaboration; Alan November's 1:The World is more like it! That discussion has stuck with me and while 1:1 Computing is still widely used in schools and on the web, perhaps it's time to recognize that the practice has outgrown the term and doesn't fit 21st century skills.

P.S. Alan November has written a lot and spoken widely about using technology creatively to connect learners across time and space. A summary of a recent presentation he made at The Schools Network national conference back in December 2011 is linked here.