newly ancient

According to the New York Times, school districts are discontinuing one-to-one learning programs. These programs, which allow every student the use of a laptop, can work great if implemented correctly. Unfortunately, in many districts where it is implemented, the schools simply give out the laptops without educating teachers in their use. They fail to show teachers how to add digital information to their lessons. Consequently, students use the laptops more for personal than study use. Unfortunately, this does not boost test scores, the classic measurement of project performance. Dismayed at the lack of improvement, schools discontinue the program for not being cost effective or productive.

This is not how it needs to be. If schools would take the time to implement tools and teach teachers how to effectively use them, one-to-one learning could be highly effective. For instance, districts could set up simply classroom blogs using WordPress MU, then get teachers to use them as an effective tool for teach-student-parent communication. Or, they could set up an effective Moodle installation and show teachers how to digitalize their courses using the software. If your district gets the choice between buying a couple dozen more laptops and showing teachers how to use social tools for learning, then educating teachers will give you far greater bang for your buck. Complex tools without manuals will never be useful.