Why a One-to-One Environment

A question posted on the discussion board of the 1:1 classroom wiki asked the students what information was important to share with their parents at a parent meeting we will be having on Wednesday, September 29th.  Some of the comments from the students suggested we tell the parents about the classroom Wiki, or that we tell them how the net-books are used in the classroom.  However the comment that caught my attention the most was how students wanted us to tell their parents that they are still using paper and pencil because their parents are afraid that student writing skills will be lost.  This is a fathomable concern so I believe it is important for us to find research to help us answer "why a one-to-one computer environment".

 In an article titled, Going One-to-One (Warschauer, 2006), five reasons are provided for starting a one-to-one laptop program.

1.  21st century learning skills.  It is explained that this is one of the most important reasons for a 1:1 environment and that it facilitates the kinds of learning, thinking and analysis required for the 21st century.
2. Greater engagement through mulitmedia.  Multi-media is everywhere and a huge part of our students' everyday lives.  Multi-media authentically incorporated into a classroom environment allows for higher levels of student engagement.  Students envolved in 1:1 computing environments are identified as producing and interpreting multimodal content.
3. More and better writing.  Students in 1:1 computing environments write much more than traditional environments.  Revisions to their writing is easier and therefore done more often.  Documents are more accessible to teachers to provide feedback to students.  
4. Deeper Learning.  Students are provided multiple ways to access material and complete activities leading to further and deeper learning.  Many 1:1 schools report increased emphasis on in-depth student research.
5. Easier integration of technology into instruction.  Teachers are excited for the way 1:1 environments helped them authentically integrate technology into instruction.  Students in 1:1 environments gain a higher degree of technology skills allowing teachers to focus on content and less on technical aspects.

 Another 1:1 computing research study looked at is titled, Laptops and Fourth-Grade Literacy: Assisting the Jump over the Fourth-Grade Slump by Suhr, Hernandez, Grimes, & Warschauer (2010).  It identified that the "purpose of this research study is to investigate the effects of a technology-intensive intervention- based upon individual student use of laptop computers - on students' academic achievement in language arts over a two year period" (Suhr, Hernandez, Grimes, & Warschauer, 2010).  As a result of a slump in reading at the fourth grade a concurrent slump in writing occurs.  This slump is a result of the transition from 'learning to read to reading to learn' (Chall et al., 1990).  It is described that in this transition children enter the "world of knowledge" in printed form and can only gain access to "knowledge" if they are able to read texts which contain the knowledge (Chall et al., 1990). 

The research paper identifies, it is believed that technology can be used to:

• expose students to a wide range of academic language
• provide scaffolding so that students can comprehend challenging and interesting texts
• engage students in text-based simulations that spark their interests and motivate their learning
• provide a wide range of tools for analyzing texts
• brain-storming their ideas
• orgainzing their thoughts
• writing
• peer editing
• publishing their work

The study concludes that a broad consensus in published research identifies one-to-one computer environments as being highly favorable for students' literacy development.