Laptop Survey – Final results are in
Here are the final results of my 1-1 laptop program survey. If you’ve watched this blog, you probably noticed I published preliminary results a while back with no commentary. I began the survey on the advice of Pamela Livingston. After 7 years of laptops for students, my school was looking for information to remodel/revise their program. Pamela’s suggestion yielded information I hope will be valuable to other institutions as well.
I have to thank the many people who accessed and/or forwarded the survey (65 accessed the survey, and about 61 completed it). It was especially cool to see responses from so many places around the world –
A few points worthy of note:
- At least 13 schools have some sort of tablet in student hands. The trend seems to be that laptop schools are either Apple or moving toward tablets. As my middle schoolers might say, it’s very 20th Century to have an old school PC laptop in student hands.
- Alphasmarts still have their place in elementary schools, primarily for word processing and keyboarding.
- 6 schools make use of iPods for students, primarily in high school languages.
- The vast majority of schools determine operating system. 67% of the responding schools use Macs; 87% use Windows. A few schools use Linux. Obviously, a number of schools allow multiple operating systems.
- The most popular hardware brand in use is Apple (63.3 %). Next are Dell and Lenovo.
- Most schools do some sort of Internet safety training, but few train students on ergonomics or technology wellness.
- The majority of schools allowing 24/7 access require some form of parent payment, whether parents purchase directly from the vendor, through the school, or via lease payments.
- None of the public schools replying are using tablets. These are financed from district funds, fundraisers, grants, etc. 91 % of the public schools responding use Macs (iBooks/Macbooks).
- The programs with mixed laptop environments are primarily independent schools with family purchase of hardware (and family choice). Most of these schools set some sort of standard – antivirus, software required, minimum hardware – and parents make the purchase, either independently or from a specific vendor.
General trends:
Access by grade: K-3 – Stationary labs, 4-8 – Carts/mobile labs, 7-12 – 1-1 laptops
Replacement of laptops occurs every 3-4 years, usually depending on the hardware warranty and/or lease. Most require extended warranties (3+ years).
I noticed a number of schools with 1-1 access in specific classrooms or just during the school day. Some programs use the 24:7 nature of 1-1 as a selling point; others seem concerned about the amount of time kids spend with technology and prefer not to extend it beyond the school day. At what point is the laptop an asset beyond the school day? The common start point seems to be upper elementary to middle school. I’m curious whether this is more of an adult issue – when the school is ready to do intensive integration – or a developmental one.
A number of schools have laptop program models which are either optional family purchase and/or have choice of platform. As someone who’s taught in a 1-1 Mac school and in a 1-1 PC school, I can’t imagine laptop-optional or mixed-platform being very effective models for significant integration. I know I could teach in a mixed-platform classroom, but the level of integration, beyond using web-based tools, would be lower than in a classroom with like platform access. (Note: The MacBook with dual boot would likely bridge the gap pretty well.)
IMHO, one of the greatest benefits of a true 1-1 program is that all students start with the same essential tool. As a teacher, I know all of my students have a word processing/spreadsheet/presentation suite and audio/video editing capability when they come into my classroom. All students can access a file I share, either via the Internet or via school networks. Any web-based resource is equally available to all students. Be the school public or private, it’s our duty to the students to start them on as level a playing field as possible and give them the support we can to get them as far as they’re willing and/or able to go.
Questions I wish I’d thought to ask:
- How would you rate your school’s technology integration?
- How high of a priority is tech integration to your administration? Faculty?
- Does platform make a difference in your teaching?
- What does your ideal 1-1 program look like?
- What steps did you take when implementing your program?
- What hurdles did you face in your program’s implementation?
- What are the greatest strengths of mobile computing in a K12 environment?
So, with all of this in mind, what does your ideal 1-1 program look like? Jim Heyndericjkx asked just that… Here are the results of his survey last summer.
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