Taking Laptops Schoolwide: A Professional
if your students are doing amaz- ing things in the classroom with laptops, and you would like to share what you’re doing without forcing it on others—or taking a great deal of
your own time—consider using a collaborative approach.
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As researchers of tech implementa-
tion, we have conducted multiple eval-
uations of one-to-one laptop programs.
Our latest district-level evaluation
paid specific attention to the progres-
sion of laptop use across grade levels.
What struck us was how some schools
seamlessly integrated laptops for learn-
ing, but others did not. We wondered
why such a difference existed among
schools in the same districts. What we
found was that successful schools had
a clearly defined scope and sequence
for how students were to use laptops,
and teacher collaboration was readily
apparent.
Student Use and Teacher Collaboration
Schools where technology was truly
ubiquitous across multiple grade levels
had a plan in place that outlined the
software in use along with the tech-
nology skills students were learning.
We found an obvious progression of
laptop use that helped students build
on skills learned in previous grade
levels rather than simply using the
laptops in the same manner year after
year. For example, at schools where
the initiative extended across several
grade levels, students reported using
programs such as Apple Works and
Pages for basic word processing in the
younger grades and more advanced
features, such as importing im-
ages and special effects, in the higher
grades. This was also true for schools
with the one-to-one ratio only in the
upper grades. In these schools, the
students had already learned the basic
applications in the primary grades
through their use of laptop carts.
