Chromebooks - aren't they just toys?

WikiMedia Commons Samsung Series 3 Chromebook

1:1 Classrooms: Getting to Transformation

@joe_edtech

I am certainly not to a point where I am ready to write my doctoral dissertation, but I am getting pretty close. And I have spent an awful lot of time over the last two years contemplating good topics.

For the last several years, I've been working with incredible staff members in two different school districts who are working to transform their classrooms through the integration of mobile technology. This is certainly no small undertaking, and it takes a special kind of teacher who is willing to dedicate hours of extra time learning the device, experimenting with apps, learning different communication methods, and practicing with different work flows. For the last three years, I've started every professional development course I've taught by saying, "I don't mind putting in the extra time to work with the teachers in this class, because I'm with teachers who are willing to work a lot harder to try something innovative for their students." 

Those efforts have been rewarded. In every case, we have qualitative and quantitative data that supports a continued investment in the mobile classroom. And that makes me think. I've read an awful lot of accounts of failed 1:1 programs, both in terms of achievement and sustainability. But, in different settings, I've seen the success growing every year. So, as I begin to think about writing a dissertation in Instructional Technology and Design, I keep getting drawn back to the idea that the concepts that we follow in our technology initiatives aren't really that complex. Surely success must be replicable. What really is the key to success when it comes to integrating technology in the classroom or supporting a large scale, 1:1 computing program? Is it:

1. Teacher led initiatives?
2. Taxpayer support?
3. Administrative support?
4. Robust sustainable infrastructure?
5. Sustained Professional Development?
6. Instructional goals, not budget or convenience, driving the decision making process?
7. The right device?
8. Or is it some combination of all of these things?

In a completely selfish effort to begin to hone in on my topic of study for the next few years, I will spend portions of the next several weeks telling segments of the success stories from my current high school as teachers go about the process of integrating Chromebooks in the classroom in several different academic areas.

In the mean time, if you have a success story to tell about technology integration and how it transformed teaching, please link to it from the comments box below.