One-to-One

In 1996 the Humboldt High School Class of 1971 had its 25th high school class reunion. As class president it is my five-year mission to speak to the class for a few short minutes. Since this was the 25th year since our high school graduation my "speech" was a bit longer. After the "Top Ten" list of our senior year, I asked questions of my classmates and responses were made with an affirmative stance or negative remain seated. One of those questions to the 101 graduates (out of 162) was, "How many of you work with a computer and information generated with computers to be able to do your job?" 99 of the 101 Humboldt graduates of 1971 stood up quickly and without hesitation. A year later I became half-time computer teacher and half-time technology coordinator at Storm Lake High School.

Today educators and administrators are arguing and discussing the role that technology should play in the K-12 environment. Since standards on technology are not carved in stone in any state in the union we are left to argue this role over and over, and over, and over. Year after year, expert after expert, budget consideration after budget consideration technology is "in limbo" in the education environment while it is all-encompassing in the business world, political & governmental ranks, administrivia, and the world of entertainment & recreation. When will this tool of the times became second nature in the educational world of each and every learner? This question has been "kicked" around for the last twenty years and no common answer has emerged.

Maine has sought to offer this to all seventh and eighth graders for the last five years. South Dakota is evidently moving in that direction. School districts have tackled this issue and budgetary concern in sporadic fashion throughout the country. We are still in an educational state of flux concerning a BASIC issue of students today, "Where's my computer?" And with that answer will come a plethera of suggestions and ideas and disagreements. While my answers will not coincide with all or even many, some authors and articles offer one-to-one initiatives now. This issue has been around twenty years and the time for a solution for all students needs to be addressed NOW.

The first state to tackle this issue was Maine and it heralded it's efforts by putting computers into the hands of all seventh and eighth grade students. South Dakota has been working with a state-wide initiative over the last two years. Iowa has toyed with the idea the last three to four years and used a few schools as pioneer sites. Whatever the case, the clock is ticking and the masses of students are sitting with nothing or a computer in a lab intermittently or at home.

A February 2007 article called "1-to-1 Computing: A Measure of Success" in __THE Journal__ discusses how the state of Texas has been dealing with the 1 computer to 1 student issue. The Texas' Technology Immersion Project began in the spring of 2004 with middle school students in high-risk, high-need areas with laptop computers. This experimental project along with the "eTxTip" Federal Government initiative have show great success in student learning, collaborative teaching, and opening the doors of comunication. Transformations and improvements in the roles and functioning of teachers, administrators, and parents as well coincided with these two technology initiatives in Texas. Maine has had similar successes earlier and today with its laptop initiative. Results of studies on the Maine Learning Technology Initiative, which began five years ago, have shown all parties to be effected positively by the consistent influx of Technology.