What if?

What if you could create a 1-to-1 environment in your classroom right now?

Why many 1-to-1 initiatives fall short

What pops into your mind when you think of 1-to-1 program? Laptops? WiFi?  That would perhaps be typical. However, even with the best of intentions, schools launching these initiatives often find themselves unable realize the sustainability and scalability they had envisioned. The Maine experience is a good example.

Back in 2002 the Maine Legislature funded a 1-to-1 initiative targeting seventh graders and their teachers in every middle school in the state. Apple provided the laptops and the training for teachers. The following year the program was scaled up to the eighth graders and their teachers, again in every middle school in the state. The intent was to sustain this approach in Grades 7 and 8 while scaling it to the state's high schools. Eventually all middle and high school students would be learning within the framework of 1-to-1 laptop programs. All Maine high school graduates would be prepared to face higher education having participated in this initiative.

Well, things didn't quite work out that way. Today Maine's seventh and eighth graders continue to learn in a 1-to-1 environment. Maine's high school students aren't so fortunate. Some high schools did initiate 1-to-1 laptops, although most did not. Meanwhile, colleges and universities all over the country are sustaining wireless programs on their own and many high school graduates are simply not ready for that environment.

Hindsight is wonderful, right? Maine deserves a lot of credit for its initiative. On the other hand, we can and must learn some important lessons as a result. While the Maine initiative was based on WiFi and laptops, this is not 2002; thirteen years have passed. We need new definitions of 1-to-1 programs to reflect current conditions. We need a new model, one that has been developing before our very eyes. Following are two examples;

Example 1: Wired to the limit

A few weeks ago I flew to Seoul, South Korea, to teach an intensive two-week class at Hangyang University. The course title was, "Technology in the Second Language Classroom." My students were to be ESL teachers in surrounding schools and businesses. Realizing that South Korea is the most wired country in the world and that Hangyang University is the leading university in Seoul, I assumed that my students would come to class with their laptops. Therefore, I had requested a classroom with flexible furniture - tables and chairs. I further stated that I definitely did not want a computer lab.

When I entered the classroom and took a quick look around, I was able to spot only three or four laptops. As the class began and I mentioned the syllabus, course content, and the required discussion forums, out came the smart phones, with full expectations that they would suffice. We immediately had a 1-to-1 environment. As is the case with most of the courses I teach, this course was project-based. All course content had been provided online (Moodle) before the class began. As we began each class meeting with a brief overview of multimedia content and interactive assignments, smartphones provided access to everything the participants needed at the moment. This enabled us to maintain a very flexible classroom environment. Across the hall was a computer lab that was available for project work that required more than a smart phone.

Example 2: In the rice fields

In that same class I introduced a project-based approach by asking each participant "What if?"  One of the teachers in the class was a Grade 5 teacher in an outlying community. She described her school as a tiny school in a small outlying community surrounded by rice fields and mountains. The small community had two small grocery stores and one small post office. Her approach to project development was to ask, "What if I have only one computer in my classroom and not many of my students have computers with internet access at home?" As she thought about these barriers, she remembered that her students do have smart phones." So she identified an instructional topic, researched apps that could be available to her students, selected four apps that her students could download to their smart phones, and developed her lessons within that framework. Amazingly, this teacher had established a 1-to-1 environment not only in her technology-limited classroom but outside the classroom as well.

Why traditional 1-to-1 programs are so difficult to sustain and to scale

Let's rethink the Maine approach. First, it was and is very expensive. Second, because it was initiated at Grade 7, subsequent grades were forced into waiting for innovation until the program was scaled (grew). But even today the scaling has not reached many high school seniors preparing for higher education - even after more than ten years.

What if Maine had launched its initiative with high school seniors rather than 7th graders? Had that happened, it is conceivable that all Maine high school graduates would now be prepared for the wireless online environment they are encountering in higher education. Wasn't that the intent in the first place - to prepare students for their future?

What if Maine had launched its initiative with high school seniors? Its statewide initiative would have been very sustainable. It would have been scalable to eleventh graders as well. Maine high schools would then include an Upper School ready to transition students to higher education with blended, hybrid and even completely online AP courses, with academic components for students in vocational and technical courses, and with elective courses. What an exciting place a high school Upper School would be! What if? Where is the vision?

Not only would all of this have been possible, the cost would have been far less. Most high school seniors preparing for higher education would want their own devices anyway. Why should the school have to buy them? Laptops aren't the only devices compatible with 1-to-1 initiatives today. Tablets and smart phones are fine for many functions. For more serious assignments like research papers and other more complex assignments, computer labs can be available on an as needed basis.

SO! Are you a teacher? Would you like your classroom to be a 1-to-1 environment now? Think about it. What if? Do your students already have the tools they need? Think of my course at Hangyang University. What are the implications for professional development? Think of the 5th grade teacher in the midst of rice fields and mountains. What are the implications for your own classroom?

Are you an administrator? What can you do to create an environment in which What if is encouraged? Are you prepared to become engaged in the leadership and management of change? My experience tells me that teachers are more open to change than their administrators, although there are certainly some exceptions.

Questions or comments? 
Feel free to add your thoughts below.
See you online!

What if ? 

What if you could streamline your Moodle to make it faster, smoother, and easier to navigate?

At The Learning Curve we have undertaken a huge project beginning last August and ending this coming June: to relocate our members’ Moodle sites to a new server facility. Our primary reason is to improve performance and efficiency for our members. As a result, we have identified a few factors that affect performance and efficiency from the teacher's end as well. So we begin this series of "white papers" by identifying some of the local issues that affect performance and by offering some solutions that require little effort but can result in significant improvements in performance.


Issues and approaches

1. Large files including PowerPoint and Prezi files. One of the easiest ways to include these files is to upload them directly into your Moodle course. This is fine as long as you don't have dozens and dozens of them to upload. As you continue to add these files to your Moodle site, they draw upon your local Moodle server not only for storage but also for running the PowerPoint or Prezi files.
   
   A better approach to upload these files to a free online service like Drop Box, Google Drive, or One Drive and create links to them in your Moodle site. Then, when students activate the presentations, the operating drain will be away from your Moodle server, thereby making your Moodle site more efficient and causing less drain from the Moodle sites of your colleagues. Another advantage to this process is that you can edit these presentations even without entering your Moodle course as long as you don't change their titles or locations. The links in your Moodle site will retain their integrity.
2. Uploaded or embedded videos. Videos provide teachers almost unlimited access to dynamic content not otherwise available. On the other hand, many of them are huge files and cause even bigger problems than PowerPoint or Prezi files in terms of data storage and overall operating efficiency.
   
   Here we have at least two good approaches. The first is to simply add the links to YouTube or any other source of videos. Let those services do the heavy lifting. If you are concerned about having your students see other videos on YouTube, try using http://safeshare.tv. Check it out. It will still take your students to YouTube but without all the extraneous material.
   
   The second approach, especially for teacher made videos, is similar to the approach I suggested for PowerPoint and Prezi. Use Drop Box, Google Drive, or One Drive.
3. Images. Images add nice touches to your course. However, the larger the image, the more space it takes. Upload your images directly into Moodle, but keep them small and use "align left" to eliminate unnecessary white space. In some cases, a large image might be necessary. For example, a teacher might want to show the circulatory system of the human body. Large images can then be uploaded to an outside source as described above. Try using a smaller version in your Moodle course and making it a link to the larger image.

Example: Creating a new course
or reorganizing an older one

1. Create a folder in Drop Box, Google Drive, or One Drive
2. Within that folder, create a folder for each module (topic, week, etc.) in your course
3. For your own materials - documents, PDFs, PowerPoints, Prezis, aodios, videos - pop them into the appropriate folders
4. Organize your Moodle course shell to correspond to the folders you have created online (modules, topics, weeks, etc.)
5. In your Moodle shell, use Add a resource > Page
6. Here is a screen shot of one of the modules in my introductory Moodle course. Note how the resources for this module include an audio file, a video, three PDFs, and a link to an article on the Web. Each of the images is actually a link to the required course content. Note the small sardine can. It is quite small yet large enough to make a point. It is also aligned left of the text - no unused white space. This approach includes a lot of content, yet it causes very little drain on Moodle's operating resources; it is visually appealing yet highly efficnent. This is not the only approach, of course. You might want to do a little experimenting in your own Moodle course.

The issue of course backups

Of course I already know that all of you back up your courses at least once each week. Right? Certainly it is important to back up your courses on a regular basis. However, this often causes a space problem. In some cases I know of teachers who do back up their courses regularly. However, sometimes they leave the backup copies in Moodle. As these backup files accumulate, they consume more and more space, sometimes causing the Moodle server to reach its storage capacity and perhaps even shut down - not really fair to other teachers and students.

Each time you back up your course, download the backup file and save it somewhere else - flash drive, SD card, etc. Then delete the backup file from your Moodle course. That way you will not create any unnecessary drain on your school's Moodle server.

Final word (or two)

A few months ago my wife and I had an electric efficiency study done in our home. The result was a series of steps that enable us to save a few dollars in our electricity consumption. This same approach can help you and your colleagues work together to get the most out of your Moodle site.

One of the simplest ways to improve the performance and efficiency of any of our local Moodle sites is to provide a bigger server with more memory and more storage. However, that would necessarily involve additional cost. The solutions described above are essentially cost free. The Learning Curve is a non-profit education organization and as such we want to work with you in every way possible. 

Questions or comments? 
Feel free to add your thoughts below.
See you online!