1:1 Progress Since January

Hi Again Everyone,
Its had to believe that summer is over and school is underway once more. Its been a busy summer as always.
I want to give you a quick update on our 1:1 initiative progress since my last post. The HS 1:1 committee has voted to continue with the 1:1 to the next phase. For us the next phase is to develop the outcomes of our 1:1 project as well as survey the HS staff to find potential uses (from every curricular area) for that type of computer access. We will be asking the entire HS staff to recommend the pursuit of the 1:1 project sometime this year. Between now and that time, we will be working on identifying "Professional Transactions" that a 1:1 project can augment. "Professional Transactions," according to research, are what technology does best. They are key actions or processes that already exist in professional practice. Technology simply enhances their effectiveness or their rate of occurrence. Doing an existing, identified, necessary task (or doing it in a more effective way) should help to raise student success in the classroom. Otherwise the task would not, and should not exist. Our computers should provide us the tools to augment those tasks. We hope to identify all the PT's we can prior to implementing a 1:1 so that we have definite targets for the project and can produce measurable outcomes. That is not to say that technology can't produce outcomes we don't intend, or that those unintended outcomes have no value. We simply don't intend to measure our 1:1 project around things we can't predict or that might have no value to the students.
So that, in a nutshell is where we stand. No talk of devices as yet, but iPads and Laptops are getting a lot of informal discussion. Our French department is working with iPads this school year as a curriculum project. They also serve as the informal 1:1 pilot for the district to help us identify potential trouble spots in policy and procedure as well as instruction. I know they will be busy this year learning along with the students.
Till next time!