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One-to-One Classrooms

Introduction

Technology has advanced exponentially over the last couple of decades.

Originally, computers had to have entire buildings to house the hardware needed to run

programs and store information. Now that all fits inside a smartphone. Due to these

kinds of advances in technology, there have been dramatic changes in medicine,

industry, entertainment, and energy resourcing. However, education seems to still be

on the edge of truly embracing technology in the classroom. Many schools have

integrated technologies such as computers, projectors, Smart Boards, and document

cameras, but these are almost exclusively used by teachers. Students have limited

opportunities to engage with technology. To prepare students for their future, they need

to know how to use technology. One-to-one classrooms where each student has either

a laptop or tablet is the best way for them to interact with and learn from technology.

One-to-one classrooms positively impact student learning and create digitally literate

citizens when technology is introduced in elementary school. But what does it take to

create one-to-one classrooms?

Drawbacks

With one-to-one classrooms there are several problems that arise. The most

common problems are initial cost, internet access, and storage capacity. Most tablets

that are used in school settings are iPads. Best Buy shows that 16GB iPads can cost

between $190 to upwards of almost $400 for just one iPad. Oregon Department of

Education (2016) reported that the average class size was around 25 students per
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classroom in the school year of 2014-2015; assuming class size has stayed relatively

the same, a class set of iPads would be for twenty-six, including a teacher iPad.

Meaning a class set of tablets would cost $4,940 for the cheapest iPads at Best Buy.

Most elementary schools have a minimum of two teachers for every grade level so there

are twelve teachers total per school. For the entire school to be one-to-one, the cost

would be $59,280. That is assuming there are enough iPads at the lowest price to

purchase. At the high end of purchasing these tablets for a school the cost would be

around $124,800. It is expensive to initially purchase devices for an entire school.

Internet access is another expenditure. Without WiFi, tablets or laptops are

almost useless. Tomaszewski (2011) explains that small schools can select wireless

routers from any office supply stores that will cost one hundred and sixty dollars at

most. He also notes that depending on how far you want the WiFi connection to reach,

that schools may have to purchase one or more extenders that generally cost seventy

dollars each. These extenders are important so that there is no sacrifice for teachers

and students to all have the same access and connection. There should not be a

capacity problem to slow down the network.

Storage capacity is another dilemma for tablet one-to-one classrooms. While

there are tablets that have storage exceeding 64GB, that also means those tablets are

more expensive to buy. In Corvallis school district, everyone at Cheldelin Middle School

has an iPad with 16GB of storage. This seems sufficient, but with multiple classes

needing assignments and apps to use, students easily fill up that space on their tablet

and there is no way to add more storage capacity onto the device.
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One of the biggest problem that educators are concerned with is off task

behaviors. While the school district does limit what students are allowed to use while on

the school internet, there is still a possibility of students choosing to be off task instead

of participating in the lesson. Perry and Steck (2015) note that “inclusion of iPads

increased off-task behaviors” (p. 138). They note that off-task behaviors included

discussions that were personal instead of academic and activities online that were not

learning related. These behaviors increased the most during individual work time and

had some increase during group work. However, the authors do note that there are

resources available to teachers now that can monitor student activity on an iPad. So,

what are the benefits?

Benefits

While it is initially expensive to purchase class sets of iPads or chromebooks and

install WiFi throughout the school, these are generally one time purchases.

Chromebooks and iPads can easily last over five years when they are updated and

properly taken care of. WiFi only needs to be installed once to work. It may be

necessary to replace some or all of the devices in a class set but this would be several

years after the initial purchase. Also depending on the school, there are Title funds,

building funds, and educational grants that can be used to purchase technology for the

classroom.

Students in one-to-one classrooms have the opportunity to delve deep into the

internet and explore. Li and Pow (2011) noted the difference between students in one-

to-one classrooms versus students without the technology had “heightened students'
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learning opportunities and broadened their learning experiences” (p. 322). Students

with tablets or laptops take more ownership of their learning experiences and

opportunities because they can explore beyond the classroom. They have what seems

like unlimited information at their fingertips to expand their learning. The authors

continue to discuss how students felt that technology was enhancing their education

and they were more engaged with technology both inside and outside of the classroom.

Another study was done to show the positive effects of laptop one-to-one

classrooms. The authors found similar results. Zheng, Warschauer, Lin and Chang

(2016) summarize that “the impact of one-to-one laptop programs on academic

achievement is generally positive across subject areas” (p. 1063). This study

emphasized math, science, writing, reading, and English language arts as the subject

areas.

Dunleavy, Dexter and Heinecke (2007) did a qualitative study specifically about

the value of one-to-one laptop use in middle schools. There were two middle schools in

this study that had math, science and English as the subject areas with one-to-one

laptops. The authors found was that “1:1 laptops appeared to contribute generally to

the effectiveness of the learning environments per the design criteria of being more

centered on learner, assessment, community and knowledge” (p. 444). This study

shows a positive, student lead learning experience across subject areas that can

happen when there is availability of one-to-one devices.

Both tablet and laptop one-to-one classrooms have many benefits. Albany

elementary schools generally use chromebooks as their one-to-one technology and I

have seen the benefit. Students are on the website that the teacher expects them to
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use. They are more likely to ask for help if they do not understand what they are

supposed to be doing or what the question is asking. And students do not distract each

other as much as classes that just use worksheets. I have also seen benefits in a

Corvallis middle school that has iPads as the one-to-one technology. In the math

setting, students use the iPad for notes, to take pictures of important information or

diagrams, to participate in activities that require using the iPad, and to work on and

submit homework to the teacher. Both types of technology can be different but they

hold the same benefits and are necessary to have in order to meet ISTE standards.

ISTE Standards

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) created standards

for students, educators, administrators, and computer science educators in order to

change education and create interactive learning environments. There are plenty of

online games and applications that students can use for learning, but as students

progress through school they will need to do more exploration and research online for

learning such as projects or papers. With every student having a device in one-to-one

classrooms, they can easily incorporate these standards into lessons or sometimes

specifically teach these standards to help students become digitally literate citizens. For

students, there are seven main standards: empowered learner, digital citizen,

knowledge constructor, innovative designer, computational thinker, creative

communicator, and global collaborator.

Looking at empowered learner, the first standard for students, ISTE (2018) states

that students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving and
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demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences.

This means that students take an active role in their learning with each subject area and

use technology to show that they understand the concepts of that subject. For

empowered learner, there are four sub-standards that students can specifically address.

For example, a student working on a Google slides presentation for social studies could

email the teacher the link and ask for feedback or help. This would meet sub-standard

1c of empowered learner because the learner is actively taking a role in demonstrating

their competency and improving their practice.

All seven main standards have four sub-standards. Some lessons may not use

all four sub-standards of one standard but may use multiple sub-standards across

multiple standards. For example, if a student needed to research a topic for an

informative paper, then they would use sub-standards 2b, 2c, 3a, and 3b to give credit

to authors they want to quote and determine if the information they have found is

credible. It is almost impossible to create a lesson that could capture all twenty eight

sub-standards, but throughout the school year and across all subject areas these twenty

eight sub-standards can be met. Try to incorporate at least one sub-standard into each

lesson that you plan for students to use technology.

Beginning in Elementary

While it is not developmentally appropriate to expect students in the early

elementary years of public education to meet all of the ISTE standards, there is a great

benefit in introducing technology at a young age. Sunrise Elementary in Greater Albany

Public School district has dedicated itself to becoming the example of a technology
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school. Every classroom has access to chromebooks or iPads in order to enhance

student learning.

Mercedes Strowbridge (2018), a six year veteran educator, is the instructional

coach at Sunrise. She notes that every kindergarten and first grade classroom all have

at least ten iPads, and second through fifth grade classrooms all have class sets of

chromebooks. For the lower elementary classroom, there is benefit in having students

interact with the touchscreen. It is not developmentally appropriate to give

kindergarteners and first graders laptops since they have only begun to learn the

alphabet/read and write so they would not be able to use the keyboard or many of the

websites for learning. The iPad is easy to use and a good first step in introducing

technology to students who may have never had the opportunity to use one before.

Most of these devices were purchased through Title money or building funds.

Strowbridge (2018) explains that while each individual classrooms differs, on average

students spend around one hour on technology per day. The older grade levels with

chromebooks tend to have more time than younger students with iPads. The most

common websites/apps that teachers use are Khan Academy, Dreambox, Freckle,

Kinder math, and GoFormative.

The one complaint Strowbridge (2018) hears amongst almost all of the teachers

in the building is about the reliability of the internet. While she is not certain exactly

what the cause of the problem is, there was only one day where the internet connection

was completely down. Strowbridge (2018) also advocates for teachers in the upper

elementary classes to create and use a contract with students. In her own classroom,

she found that having clear, defined expectations of what students are and are not
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allowed to do with/on their devices prevented unwanted behaviors and explained

consequences of misusing the device.

These interactive websites/apps are engaging for students. There are less

distractions such as sharpening pencils to take away from students being on task. For

older students, access to chromebooks builds a foundation for typing and practice using

chromebooks better prepares students for taking the Smarter Balanced test compared

to students who have had little to no access to technology.

Teachers benefit from one-to-one classrooms with less paperwork to misplace,

keep track of, and take home to grade. This allows more time for planning lessons.

Most educational sites such as Freckle and Dreambox differentiate learning for

individual students and they are engaged in learning. There are also apps/websites that

can allow teachers to manage all of the devices in the classroom. Strowbridge (2018)

notes that Google classroom is used by kinder and first grade to track and manage what

students are doing on iPads, and GoGuardian is used by second through fifth grade to

manage what students are doing on chromebooks.

Creating lessons based on using technology can feel unfamiliar for teachers.

Some teachers are not confident in their own abilities to use technology in the

classroom. Strowbridge (2018) offers the advice of using one website or app everyday

for a specific amount of time so the teacher can become comfortable with using the site

and the device.

Conclusion
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One-to-one classrooms have both drawbacks and benefits. Initial cost, internet

reliability, storage capacity, and device misuse are four main examples of drawbacks.

Whereas student engagement, accountability, continued improvement of writing tasks,

differentiated lessons, developing typing skills, and state testing preparedness are all

benefits to one-to-one classrooms. Thus, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.

But why begin in elementary school? Elementary school is where we build the

foundation of all learning. Students learn the alphabet, sight words, colors, shapes, how

to read, how to write, basic math facts, problem solving, and communication skills in

these years. Everything that students learn in elementary school progresses into

middle and high school. Teachers take what students should know and extend their

knowledge. We build on our student’s success. For example, students that have a firm

understanding of positive numbers on a number line will have an easier time applying

negative numbers to a number line than students who do not grasp the concept of

positive numbers on a number line. Being able to build upon prior knowledge increases

a students success with retaining new knowledge. Which is why building and having

experience and skills with devices in elementary school is important.

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References

Best Buy (2018) Retrieved from:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?id=pcat17071&st=ipad+4+16gb

Dunleavy, M., Dexter, S., & Heinecke, W. (2007). What added value does a 1:1 student

to laptop ratio bring to technology-supported teaching and learning? Journal Of

Computer Assisted Learning, 23(5), 440-452. doi:10.1111/j.1365-

2729.2007.00227.x

ISTE (2018) ISTE standards for students. Retrieved from:

https://www.iste.org/standards/for-students
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Li, S. C., & Pow, J. C. (2011). Affordance of deep infusion of one-to-one tablet-pcs

into and beyond classroom. International Journal Of Instructional Media, 38(4),

319-326.

Oregon Department of Education. (2016) Class size report 2016. Retrieved from:

http://www.ode.state.or.us/wma/data/schoolanddistrict/students/docs/class_size_

report_to_legislature_20142015.pdf

Perry, D. R., & Steck, A. K. (2015). Increasing student engagement, self-efficacy, and

meta-cognitive self-regulation in the high school geometry classroom: Do iPads

help? Computers In The Schools, 32(2), 122-143.

doi:10.1080/07380569.2015.1036650

Strowbridge, M. (2018, May 16-17) Personal interview and email.

Tomaszewski, J. (2011) Setting up school Wi-Fi part 1: Smaller, limited-user

networks. Education World. Retrieved from:

http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/setting_up_school_wifi_part_1.shtml

Zheng, B., Warschauer, M., Lin, C., & Chang, C. (2016). Learning in one-to-one laptop

environments. Review Of Educational Research, 86(4), 1052-1084.

doi:10.3102/0034654316628645