As a Digital Learning Coach, I have been very involved in the 1:1 program in my district. The initiative started in January, 2015 with six high schools and has continued to add schools each semester. In the coming school year, all students in 6th-12th grade will be issued a device, mostly Chromebook C731s. The program goals center on student engagement and increasing opportunities for students to build the skills needed for college, career, and community leadership. Over the last four years, the processes and procedures for the 1:1 dig-in system have been have been vetted and adjusted as needed.
Roles and Responsibilities
As with any system, the human component is vital to the success of the 1:1 program. In addition to the technicians and warehouse manager, there are five roles that serve individual campuses as a part of the dig-in system: technology liaison, dig-in facilitator, dig-in administrator, technology influencer, and the digital learning coach. The table below explains each of the roles in depth.
Software Resources
Although each of these roles is aware of common issues and solutions with student devices, the technicians take care of the majority of damaged or dysfunctional devices. TipWeb is the software used by the district to manage the student device inventory. This software is how campus personnel communicate with the warehouse manager. Within TipWeb, both campus and warehouse personnel are aware of how many devices are checked out to students, which devices are in repair, and how many devices are needed to serve the student population. The campus dig-in facilitators and administrators use TipWeb to note lost or stolen devices as well as devices in need of software or hardware repairs. The warehouse manager is able to see when devices need to picked up and repaired by the technicians. Once technicians make the appropriate repairs, TipWeb communicates to campus personal that devices are on the way back to the campus for student use.
In the case of lost or stolen devices, additional steps are in place locate and reconcile the loss of the device. In the case of a lost or stolen device, Absolute software is used to generate reports on devices, users of devices, and network data. Absolute allows the district to determine the location of the device, when it used, and by who. Often times, students mix up devices with other students, and Absolute makes it easy to return devices to the right students. In the case of a stolen device, information about use and location are included in the police report.
Room for Improvement
Overall the 1:1 device processes and procedures work for the majority of campuses. However, success is determined in large part by the support of campus administration, especially when it comes to holding students responsible for lost and damaged devices. Since these devices are used on a daily basis, there are several administrators that quickly assign new devices to students without following up on the lost/stolen device. This creates problems later when campuses are held responsible for the financial obligations related to lost, stolen, and damaged devices.
In addition to problems with reconciling devices, training presents another challenge within the 1:1 system. Although professional development and coaching are available to teachers throughout the year, it is up to the teachers to train the students. Many students have smartphones, but as we are learning, the skills needed to navigate within the work/school setting are very different from the social context in which mobile devices are often used. The technology influencer is a new role for the upcoming school year and was added to help teachers better educate their students on using their district device. Since the majority of students will be using Chromebooks, all technology influencers are attending extensive Google training this summer and are expected to take the training back to their teams. It is the hope of educational technology that teachers will be better prepared to help their students with Google Drive and G-Suite apps.
District Impact
The district uses a validated, research-based evaluation tool to determine the impact of technology on student learning. The tool measures results in four domains: classroom, access, skills, and environment. Scores vary from one (beginning) to five (exemplary). According to assessment data in 2015, the high schools in the district ranked emerging (level two) overall, with the classroom domain ranking the lowest (emerging- level two). At the end of this past school year, the overall rank of high schools was advanced (level four) and the classroom domain showed growth as well (proficient-level three). When comparing high schools to elementary and middle school campuses, a greater impact can be seen. Since the implementation of the 1:1 initiative, high schools have seen a steady increase in all domains, especially in the classroom and skills domains. However, the elementary and middle school campuses remained rather stagnant in their growth. It wasn’t until this past year, that elementary and middle school campuses reached the proficient mark in the classroom domain. Although growth is detected, more information is needed to measure the overall success of the 1:1 program on student engagement and success.
Conclusion
As with any systems, the 1:1 program is not without its faults. However, the majority of the “kinks” have been worked out over the last five years. As the program switches to new devices and adds middle school students as users, there will be growing pains in the coming year. Thankfully, the processes and procedures in place for the high schools will be easy to translate into the middle school environment. Each year, the system is refined based on feedback from stakeholders. The feedback and refinement process strengthen the program and allow for continued improvement, which allows the district to have greater impact on student engagement and success.
References
DiG-iN Program Digital Handbook. (2019). Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/view/diginhandbook/home?authuser=0
BrightBytes. (2019). BrightBytes Data and Reports. Retrieved from http://www.brightbytes.net/