Top 10 things NOT to do in a 1:1 iPad Initiative
4 views
Skip to first unread message
erst...@gmail.com
May 8, 2012, 11:42:49 AM5/8/12
to Adventist Education Forum
After talking with several schools that are looking to push out IPads
right away I thought this might be useful as several are making the
same mistakes.
Top 10 things NOT to do in a 1:1 iPad Initiative
By Carl Hooker, CIO Advisor
Part of the benefit of jumping forward with a 1:1 iPad deployment like
we have tried is that we get the opportunity to impart knowledge to
other districts looking to do a similar initiative. While that might
not seem like a benefit, it actually also means we can make some
mistakes because there is not a long history of this type of
deployment in the world. Many districts have had 1:1 laptop projects,
which we have benefitted from and could easily be applied to this list
I’m about to share. However, for the sake of our specific district and
the questions I get from other districts on a daily basis, I’m going
to break down the 10 things you SHOULD NOT do when implementing a 1:1
iPad program.
1. Do NOT wait until the last minute to give them to staff.
Due to the timing of our bond package and when funds could become
available, we didn’t actually have iPads in hand and branded until mid-
July. That means many teachers only got to experience the iPads in
their hands for one month or less. Not ideal when trying to make your
staff comfortable. In a perfect world they could have had them a year
to a semester ahead of time. Or at least before the summer started.
2. Do NOT expect it to go perfectly on the first day students get
them.
We planned the launch day as perfectly as we could have, but there are
always a couple of issues to deal with. We had iPad cases held up in
customs at DFW airport, so we had to fill a last-minute order of 1,500
cases the night before. We crashed our Casper server three hours into
the first day as hundreds of kids were downloading their apps at the
same time. Both of those issues are fixable, but you can’t always
anticipate those things during planning.
3. Do NOT roll out all your apps at the same time on the same day
See item #2 above. If you are doing a 1:1 model like ours, where the
end user gets the apps, you don’t want to force-feed all your apps
down on the same day. This is especially true with larger apps like
Garageband, which we left off the initial day list and released it on
the weekend, when kids could download it from their own bandwidth at
home. This spreads the downloads out over time so you don’t have 1,500
kids downloading a 1.7 GB app during third period.
4. Do NOT try and control everything about the iPad.
There are several models out there for deployment of apps: a personal
model, an institutional model, and a layered model being the most
common. The beauty and educational relevance of these devices is the
personalization of the learning that can happen. That is null and void
the second you turn this into just another “system” to manage through
your technology department. These are NOT PCs. Do NOT try and manage
them as such. You destroy the value-add by doing that. Because of age
restrictions with Apple IDs, you can only have students 13+ manage
those accounts. I encourage you to do that (this is the personal
model). Students under 13, you’re likely to be forced to use some
version of the other two models. In the personal model, the worst
thing that can happen is they walk away with an app like Keynote. God
forbid they actually want to use an educational tool to make
presentations after they graduate.
5. Do NOT expect teaching to change immediately.
I have long been preaching the SAMR model by Dr. Ruben Puentedura as
how teaching should progress in a 1:1 (or any) environment. Apple has
also relied heavily on this model and I figure they know what they are
talking about. Teachers can’t be expected to change the way they teach
overnight. However, most of the tools we’ve given them in the past
(SMARTBoards, document cameras, etc.) were teaching tools. This tool
is in the hands of kids, which means it’s student-driven. Teachers and
students will lean heavily on substitution in the SAMR model to start,
but have patience. Redefinition of teaching and learning does NOT
happen overnight.
6. Do NOT assume the entire community will be on board.
As great as the idea behind personalized learning can be, it can be a
pretty severe mind-shift for those lay-people in the community. Add on
top of that, budget cuts with staff time, and you can see how this can
quickly turn into a no-win scenario. It's important to stress what the
goals are and also to get both parents and teachers working with you
to find solutions to little problems. However, that doesn't mean you
give them the option to not participate. The most successful 1:1
programs have a universal understanding and expectation across the
district about what can and should be accomplished. In the community,
there is a common misconception that an iPad isn't a computer. If you
pass a bond to buy computers, you need to make sure they understand
that these are in fact tablet computers. The other item to stress is
that this is a powerful classroom tool that now takes the place of the
textbook, calculator, dictionary, etc. It might not do everything, but
for the cost and what it will do, it's well worth the investment.
7. Do NOT evaluate the program solely with test scores.
It may be the easiest and most publicized metric to measure kids with,
but it's far from the most accurate when you are talking about
changing the culture of learning and customizing a student's school
experience through a 1:1 program. Engagement, motivation,
collaboration, communication and the desire to dig deeper into
subjects were all items we measured through anonymous student and
teacher surveys. With all of those improvements, it's what happens next
—when the student goes on to college and post-college life—that's a
thousand times more important than how they did on a random test. This
item is closely tied to item 6 above when talking to the community
about how the program is going.
8. Do NOT limit staff training to the summer.
Due to budgetary cuts, our high school teachers lost an extra planning
period that was considered PLC time. This time was framed around
Marzano's Professional Learning Communities and allowed same-subject
area teachers to have a common planning time to grow and learn. On top
of that, we cut back our instructional technologists across the
district. Both of these factors could have killed the program and
definitely kept us from transforming teaching and learning as much as
we would have liked. Marzano and research from Project Red talks about
how one of the key traits to successful implementation of 1:1 is a
monthly training at minimum led by the principal and key leaders to
give teachers the tools they need. Research also suggests that
teachers will ultimately determine the success of the program, so it's
worth investing in them. We have seen the error in our ways and will
implement back some PLC time next year as well as add some support
staff.
9. Do NOT expect email to be the best option for submitting work.
Being paperless has been a great cost savings for us. We've cut back
on paper use by 22% in the first few months and that's only with two
grade levels having 1:1 technology. While that's a great cost-savings,
managing all of those digital files can be an issue for teachers. They
no longer have to tote 187 papers back and forth to school, but now
all of those papers will crowd their email inbox. Teachers at our high
school have figured out how to use Gmail's filtering to help with this
organization, but ultimately, a good content management system is
needed. We just purchased our system to put in place for next year and
hope that will let us save time as well as paper.
10. Do NOT let fear overcome your mission.
Everyone will go through a point in time where they doubt the idea of
a 1:1 iPad program working. They'll think it's a fad. They'll think
it's a waste of money. They'll complain about having to change. All of
these and hundreds of other concerns will be raised throughout the
implementation process. It is easy to get dismayed by the loud
minority of critics out there. If there is any hope of your program
being successful, the core team of administrators, teachers and
students needs to be on the same page, speaking the same message. That
message is plain and simple: This is not a technology expense, it's an
investment in our students and their future.
right away I thought this might be useful as several are making the
same mistakes.
Top 10 things NOT to do in a 1:1 iPad Initiative
By Carl Hooker, CIO Advisor
Part of the benefit of jumping forward with a 1:1 iPad deployment like
we have tried is that we get the opportunity to impart knowledge to
other districts looking to do a similar initiative. While that might
not seem like a benefit, it actually also means we can make some
mistakes because there is not a long history of this type of
deployment in the world. Many districts have had 1:1 laptop projects,
which we have benefitted from and could easily be applied to this list
I’m about to share. However, for the sake of our specific district and
the questions I get from other districts on a daily basis, I’m going
to break down the 10 things you SHOULD NOT do when implementing a 1:1
iPad program.
1. Do NOT wait until the last minute to give them to staff.
Due to the timing of our bond package and when funds could become
available, we didn’t actually have iPads in hand and branded until mid-
July. That means many teachers only got to experience the iPads in
their hands for one month or less. Not ideal when trying to make your
staff comfortable. In a perfect world they could have had them a year
to a semester ahead of time. Or at least before the summer started.
2. Do NOT expect it to go perfectly on the first day students get
them.
We planned the launch day as perfectly as we could have, but there are
always a couple of issues to deal with. We had iPad cases held up in
customs at DFW airport, so we had to fill a last-minute order of 1,500
cases the night before. We crashed our Casper server three hours into
the first day as hundreds of kids were downloading their apps at the
same time. Both of those issues are fixable, but you can’t always
anticipate those things during planning.
3. Do NOT roll out all your apps at the same time on the same day
See item #2 above. If you are doing a 1:1 model like ours, where the
end user gets the apps, you don’t want to force-feed all your apps
down on the same day. This is especially true with larger apps like
Garageband, which we left off the initial day list and released it on
the weekend, when kids could download it from their own bandwidth at
home. This spreads the downloads out over time so you don’t have 1,500
kids downloading a 1.7 GB app during third period.
4. Do NOT try and control everything about the iPad.
There are several models out there for deployment of apps: a personal
model, an institutional model, and a layered model being the most
common. The beauty and educational relevance of these devices is the
personalization of the learning that can happen. That is null and void
the second you turn this into just another “system” to manage through
your technology department. These are NOT PCs. Do NOT try and manage
them as such. You destroy the value-add by doing that. Because of age
restrictions with Apple IDs, you can only have students 13+ manage
those accounts. I encourage you to do that (this is the personal
model). Students under 13, you’re likely to be forced to use some
version of the other two models. In the personal model, the worst
thing that can happen is they walk away with an app like Keynote. God
forbid they actually want to use an educational tool to make
presentations after they graduate.
5. Do NOT expect teaching to change immediately.
I have long been preaching the SAMR model by Dr. Ruben Puentedura as
how teaching should progress in a 1:1 (or any) environment. Apple has
also relied heavily on this model and I figure they know what they are
talking about. Teachers can’t be expected to change the way they teach
overnight. However, most of the tools we’ve given them in the past
(SMARTBoards, document cameras, etc.) were teaching tools. This tool
is in the hands of kids, which means it’s student-driven. Teachers and
students will lean heavily on substitution in the SAMR model to start,
but have patience. Redefinition of teaching and learning does NOT
happen overnight.
6. Do NOT assume the entire community will be on board.
As great as the idea behind personalized learning can be, it can be a
pretty severe mind-shift for those lay-people in the community. Add on
top of that, budget cuts with staff time, and you can see how this can
quickly turn into a no-win scenario. It's important to stress what the
goals are and also to get both parents and teachers working with you
to find solutions to little problems. However, that doesn't mean you
give them the option to not participate. The most successful 1:1
programs have a universal understanding and expectation across the
district about what can and should be accomplished. In the community,
there is a common misconception that an iPad isn't a computer. If you
pass a bond to buy computers, you need to make sure they understand
that these are in fact tablet computers. The other item to stress is
that this is a powerful classroom tool that now takes the place of the
textbook, calculator, dictionary, etc. It might not do everything, but
for the cost and what it will do, it's well worth the investment.
7. Do NOT evaluate the program solely with test scores.
It may be the easiest and most publicized metric to measure kids with,
but it's far from the most accurate when you are talking about
changing the culture of learning and customizing a student's school
experience through a 1:1 program. Engagement, motivation,
collaboration, communication and the desire to dig deeper into
subjects were all items we measured through anonymous student and
teacher surveys. With all of those improvements, it's what happens next
—when the student goes on to college and post-college life—that's a
thousand times more important than how they did on a random test. This
item is closely tied to item 6 above when talking to the community
about how the program is going.
8. Do NOT limit staff training to the summer.
Due to budgetary cuts, our high school teachers lost an extra planning
period that was considered PLC time. This time was framed around
Marzano's Professional Learning Communities and allowed same-subject
area teachers to have a common planning time to grow and learn. On top
of that, we cut back our instructional technologists across the
district. Both of these factors could have killed the program and
definitely kept us from transforming teaching and learning as much as
we would have liked. Marzano and research from Project Red talks about
how one of the key traits to successful implementation of 1:1 is a
monthly training at minimum led by the principal and key leaders to
give teachers the tools they need. Research also suggests that
teachers will ultimately determine the success of the program, so it's
worth investing in them. We have seen the error in our ways and will
implement back some PLC time next year as well as add some support
staff.
9. Do NOT expect email to be the best option for submitting work.
Being paperless has been a great cost savings for us. We've cut back
on paper use by 22% in the first few months and that's only with two
grade levels having 1:1 technology. While that's a great cost-savings,
managing all of those digital files can be an issue for teachers. They
no longer have to tote 187 papers back and forth to school, but now
all of those papers will crowd their email inbox. Teachers at our high
school have figured out how to use Gmail's filtering to help with this
organization, but ultimately, a good content management system is
needed. We just purchased our system to put in place for next year and
hope that will let us save time as well as paper.
10. Do NOT let fear overcome your mission.
Everyone will go through a point in time where they doubt the idea of
a 1:1 iPad program working. They'll think it's a fad. They'll think
it's a waste of money. They'll complain about having to change. All of
these and hundreds of other concerns will be raised throughout the
implementation process. It is easy to get dismayed by the loud
minority of critics out there. If there is any hope of your program
being successful, the core team of administrators, teachers and
students needs to be on the same page, speaking the same message. That
message is plain and simple: This is not a technology expense, it's an
investment in our students and their future.
richar...@cs.com
May 8, 2012, 11:26:12 PM5/8/12
to adventis...@googlegroups.com
Ernest, I greatly appreciated your list. Often people overlook concerns and make them mountains. You area tremendous asset and I only regret not knowing while I was a sitting superintendent. Thanks for your words even though my. Lass room is one and those who have vision and will listen. Kevin kossick is a good man. I hope he works out well for you.
Richard
Sent from my iPad
> --
> Visit our home page: http://edforum.adventist.org
>
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Group "Adventist Education Forum."
> To post to this group, send email to Adventis...@googlegroups.com
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to AdventistEdFor...@googlegroups.com
> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/AdventistEdForum
>
> Remember ~ EdForum is for discussion of topics directly related to Adventist Education. Please do not send advertising, off topic, or personal messages. Thanks for being a part of the Adventist Education Forum!
Richard
Sent from my iPad
> Visit our home page: http://edforum.adventist.org
>
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Group "Adventist Education Forum."
> To post to this group, send email to Adventis...@googlegroups.com
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to AdventistEdFor...@googlegroups.com
> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/AdventistEdForum
>
> Remember ~ EdForum is for discussion of topics directly related to Adventist Education. Please do not send advertising, off topic, or personal messages. Thanks for being a part of the Adventist Education Forum!
Elaine Pugh
May 9, 2012, 11:24:40 AM5/9/12
to adventis...@googlegroups.com
Thank you so much for detailed advice on this whole issue. It fills in another facet of learning what to expect from an administrative perspective. I have been attending numerous public and private webinars on this topic to get the reason for the season, and reading your list speaks to the practical area of implementation. Thank you, you have been most helpful.
Elaine Pugh
> Subject: Re: [EdForum] Top 10 things NOT to do in a 1:1 iPad Initiative
> From: richar...@cs.com
> Date: Tue, 8 May 2012 23:26:12 -0400
> To: adventis...@googlegroups.com
> From: richar...@cs.com
> Date: Tue, 8 May 2012 23:26:12 -0400
> To: adventis...@googlegroups.com
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages