CUEBC Conference - Reaching one at a time

At the CUEBC conference hosted in Maple Ridge BC, I had the pleasure of having a conversation with Will relating to how to meet the needs of educators. It was a refreshing and hones conversation.

At one point, the question came up as to whether to spend purchase laptops for students or for teachers. The answer was to focus on the teachers. Thirty teachers that have a laptop to integrate into their personal and professional lives will change teaching far more than a class of students.

I found this fascinating and started thinking about it. We recently did a project with providing 10 laptops to 7 schools. We were looking at how that improved student learning and in particular writing. As positive as the results were, I now wonder how different it would have been to provide laptops to even 10 teachers in each of the schools (or 3 schools with 20 teachers) Instead of impacting 14 teachers practice and 350 students each year, our impact could have been 70 teachers and 1750 students.

As we drove deeper into conversation, I realized how much more valuable working with the teachers and building their capacity was. We can change the way we think and teach in the classroom that prepares students for what they can do at home. 1400 more students can take what they see modeled in the classroom and apply it at home.

It is fair to say that some schools do not have the same access at home for their students; however, most schools still have at least a computer lab and a classroom computer. (Not ideal but better than no access at all.)

Once the teaching has been empowered, there will be a better readiness for 1 to 1 laptop initiatives in the school. Currently our district would need to invest 5 million per year into just the hardware to impact 1 grade level. Instead, an investment of 200 000 would provide all of the teachers in a grade with a laptop. (Again not ideal, but with an impact of 5000 students)

A conversation with Will stretches your own understandings. The next thought that I had was that a laptop is not enough. To integrate effectively you also need a projector to share and demonstrate with students. That would involve a projector. Double the investment and we have a projector provided as well. I think for year one of the project that would be an amazing goal to have them integrating technology and impacting the learning of 5000 students in easily imaginable ways.

The next step that I can see is to provide SMART boards the following year. Maybe not all teachers will want them, but I would hazard after 1 year of being immersed with technology, most teachers would be ready for the next leap.

Is an investment of $3000 per teacher worth investment in student lives. (Assuming a life of 4 years on each of the 3 items, this boils down to $3000 / 4 years / 100 students or $7.50 per student.

As a parent, I would very happily pay $7.50 for my childrenís teacher to have access to tools that will prepare them not for yesterday but for thinking in the world they will be living in.