Reflections of an English Teacher on a New 1-to-1 Tablet Program

The bloggers and tech consultants won't tell you this, but be warned: without a doubt, 1:1 computing will result in a marked increase in ACL and MCL tears in your faculty and perhaps even your students. That little sign in the mailroom that talks about number of days without an "on the job" injury will hover around zero from here on out. Here is the reason: power cords. While our 1:1 rollout has been as close to flawless as possible, and as a nonbeliever I hate to admit it, no one warned the older generation that they would be required to be spry and aware as they roam their classrooms looking for gamers.

Outside of the few first-day glitches like computers not being able to pick up the wireless signal and login troubles, the challenges that we face every day, all joking aside, are having students come to class with full batteries and keeping them on task. Sometimes I feel like my classroom has become the control room at NASA as kids are plugged in to every available outlet. But the daily rewards continue to exceed the risks to my health. First, the organizational power of Onenote has virtually eliminated the five minute search through the backpack for yesterday's handout. In fact, I now have students that want everything electronically so they can store it in their Onenote binders. Students are taking more notes, and I realize much of that is the novelty of the stylus and the vastly expanded doodling options, but I am still seeing more written down than ever before. Homework turn in on Interact is a delight. Being able to download a folder of assignments to grade and return has streamlined the process and limited excuses. I am thrilled that my email inbox is no longer flooded with essays. As an English teacher, I never thought I would embrace a paperless world so readily. Rest assured, we will still have actual novels and plays in our hands, but I am hoping to move our coursepack of short stories and essays to the electronic version next year.

Downsides still exist: no environment is perfect. The startup time at the beginning of class is still longer than I would like. I don't think students have a handle on managing their power settings (thus the constant need to recharge) and they often take their time finishing up a previous task before giving you their attention. But I think much of this is part of establishing a new classroom culture. Students like systems and routine and feel more comfortable when they know what to expect, so I think it is imperative for us to make our expectations with this tablets clear to them from the first day and stay patient as they realize we are serious.

Lynn Mittler - Upper School English - MICDS