Just less than a year ago the 6th grade students and teachers at Graded: The American School of Sao Paulo kicked off a 1:1 laptop pilot program. I’m pleased to say that the term “pilot” is now gone and the initiative now spans grades 6 and 7. At that time I was the high school principal to be. Prior to rolling out the laptops the school made a decision that, at the time, I thought was unorthodox, uninformed, and crazy. The school’s “Y’all come…” model is one where students can bring any laptop they choose as long as it meets the minimum requirements. I was flabbergasted when Derrel Fincher, the director of technology, first explained the plan. It was not what I was used to and it just didn’t make sense to me. I started brainstorming reasons why this would not work. How will teachers deal with having multiple operating systems in their classrooms (including computers from Korea)? What will teachers and students do with specialized peripherals that requires specific software? Who will repair the machine when it goes down? Won’t they be limiting their resources by not purchasing standardized software? I even searched around and I only found one other school that was using a similar model.
But, in keeping an open mind I vowed to take a wait and see approach and explore the possibilities.
I learned early about the factors that led to the “Y’all come…“model.
1. Looking to the future — With the explosion of web 2.0 tools it seems that we continue to rely less and less on traditional software packages. More and more of our time is spent using free online tools. The school believes that this is a trend that will continue and that these learning tools will support learning. In addition, the hope is that teachers and students will rely more heavily on open source options in the future.
2. Google Education Tools and The Cloud — To standardize some of the productivity tools the school invested in Google Education tools for collaboration. Students and teachers can communicate via e-mail, calendars, documents, sites, and video sharing. This has become the foundation of the program and the one that teachers have spent the most time trying to leverage.
3. Dependability of Hardware — Today’s machines are becoming more and more dependable which means that there is less of a need for onsite tech support. If a student’s machine breaks down the school will provide a loaner while the family gets it repaired.
4. Cost of Laptops in Brazil — Due to import taxes the cost of technology in Brazil is staggering. Just to give you an idea: The Dell Vostro 3500 that costs $539 in the United States costs over $1100 in Brazil. This option lets parents spend as little or as much as they desire to support their child’s learning (as long as they meet the minimum requirements). As Derrel puts it, “ One goal is avoid any mandatory expenses on parents beyond what comes “standard” on an off-the-shelf computer.”
So, after 3 months at the school I see the possibilities and potential. Do we have everything figured out without any kinks? No, but who does after 6 months of a 1:1 program. As with any 1:1 program we are continually looking for ways to provide all of our students with these new tools for learning. We just take a different approach than those who are using a standardized model. With that said, the faster the technology changes, the more that I think the forward thinking educators at Graded had the right idea.
Anyone else out there using the Y’all come… model? If so, what can you share with the rest of us?
Image credit: James Fallon High School, NSW
We use the “y’all come model” as well…we just launched it to all students in grades 6–12 at the school I work at here in Palo Alto, CA. Students own the computers and we have a mix of mostly macs, some windows, and even a few Linux machines (one kid has Fedora!)
IMHO, the most interesting thing about what we are doing is that we don’t require specific software titles. Instead, we require categories-students must have a word processor, audio editor, movie editing software, etc. This model has great potential to move us away from “click here” modes of using technology to more conceptual teaching and learning. So instead of, “now we’re going to make an iMovie,” things shift to, “no we are going to learn to convey a message and make a point using mixed media.“
Our comprehensive FAQ doc is posted at the following link:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AYwa3i7setUiZGdrbWI4NzZfMjE1c3F3dzM3aGg&hl=en
My ultimate goal is to get our school to take a totally agnostic view point on ALL hardware and software, including mobiles like iPads, iPods, Android, Win7, HP WebOS powered slates, etc. This puts us in a position (and I quote Gever Tulley here) to “Create pedagogy that integrates technologies as quickly as they emerge.” http://www.flickr.com/photos/mjmonty/4451394507/
Matt, thanks for sharing the information on your program. You sound a lot like Derrel when you say “agnostic view point”. You are right that the shift is away from the specific software and more toward learning. How are your students and faculty handling this approach? Any specific examples of exciting breakthroughs? How about challenges?
Hope that we hear from others. I hear that the Harker School also uses this model.
The Osseo (MN) Area Schools are doing this too in some of their schools; contact Tim Wilson, the CTO there.
When implementing this kind of model, I think it’s important to address equity concerns by giving laptops to (or having them on hand for) students that can’t afford one. You could do this via a financial means test…
We do it, too, at Sekolah Bogor Raya in Bogor, Indonesia. But we call it the ‘Starbucks model’, meaning that we provide the bandwidth and the kids, from grade 5 up, bring their own laptops. We refer to Starbucks since this coffee purveyor was one of the first providing internet access at its coffee shops in Jakarta.
I have heard of no real problems with this approach in our school, perhaps because our tech backup is very competent. We have several desktop units in every classroom to accommodate those few kids who have forgotten to bring their laptops or haven’t purchased a laptop yet.
I wonder if “y’all come” model would work as effectively with younger students as it does with 6th and 7th graders. I’d think not. It’s probably easier to teach concepts to older students. But, given the information shared in this article the model seems highly appropriate for older students. We don’t want to tell students what to do, we want to teach them how to decide what to do.
Andrew Pass
A Pass Educational Group
Hi Blair,
I’ll attempt to answer some of your excellent questions…we’re still only 5 weeks into this, so go easy on me :)
How are your students and faculty handling this approach?
Overall they are responding very well and it is all quite ‘normal’ feeling. I suppose this is due to the fact that for the last 7 years we opened our wireless network to personally owned student devices, so it was more an evolution than anything else. We also DO NOT REQUIRE teachers to to use laptops in their class–this has lowered the stakes for everyone, which I think is quite healthy. We do have some teachers who do not allow students to use computers in their classrooms, but with more focus and effort on professional development, this is likely to change. Right now we are hearing some students and families say that kids are rarely using them in class…I’ll happily take this over forced, inauthentic use any day. Even if some students aren’t using them frequently during class, ALL students seem to enjoy ubiquitous, unfiltered access during discretionary time blocks (lunch, recess, study halls, etc).
Re students: They LOVE this model. In many cases, they are using laptops they’ve owned and used for 2–3 years…these laptops have all of their ‘stuff’ on them and as a result, the kids take really, really good care of their computers (to the contrary, our laptop carts were notoriously mistreated when those were in service).
Any specific examples of exciting breakthroughs? How about challenges?
2 years ago we made a moodle learning network available and 15 months ago we transitioned to Google Apps for mail and collaboration services. These OS agnostic platforms have really made the transition to the BYOL model much, much easier.
One exciting story comes from an AP physics teacher and classroom. He shared with me that earlier in the year he had some students do some data analysis in spreadsheets. He was blown away that some used MS Office, some Open Office, some numbers, and some google docs presentations…it all just seemed to work. And at the end of the class session, the students accomplished the goal that he set forth regardless of the specific title of software that they used. He also reported how exciting it was to see kids helping each other out.
Challenges: There still are many challenges. We do have teachers who are not happy with this model and would’ve preferred software and hardware standardization. We’re really trying hard to help all of our community members see the unique opportunities that are associated with our new immersive digital learning model. I posted an ‘unofficial’ essential question for our laptop learning model over at my blog…we’re nowhere near having answers for this, but I’d like to think that we’ll be slowly working toward answering these questions in a thoughtful way.
http://middleschoolblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/laptop-learning-essential-question.html
Thats great points and I can’t agree more! I found this blog by accident for my school project when doing a research on gogole about HP company and their products, i have bookmarked this site and will come to visit again