Redefining education: 1 to 1 computing strategies in Tasmanian schools

Fluck, Andrew and Twining, Peter (2014). Redefining education: 1 to 1 computing strategies in Tasmanian schools. In: Now IT's Personal: Proceedings of the Australian Computers in Education Conference, ACEC, pp. 166–174.

URL: http://acec2014.acce.edu.au/sites/2014/files/ACEC2...

Abstract

The Digital Education Revolution (DER) faced significant challenges in Tasmania because of its distributed regional population. This resulted in the Year 9-12 DER funding being diluted in high schools to support Years 7-8, outside the scope of the policy intention. In addressing this challenge, two Tasmanian high schools adopted different strategies to introduce, maintain and integrate 1:1 computing. The first school took a strategic and informed decision to provide netbooks to all students in 2008 (prior to DER). These netbooks subsequently percolated through the entire school and all curriculum areas. The second school saw the potential in user-owned equipment at an early stage, and negotiated administrative hurdles. These related to the security of the equipment (and potential breakages) and access to the institutional wireless network. Students were allowed to bring their smartphones, netbooks, tablets and laptops to school. Both schools were visited to gather data through questionnaires, observations and interviews. This paper illustrates the differences and commonalities between these two schools, exploring the decision-making around ‘all the same’ and ‘Bring Your Own (BYO)’ policies. The learnings from these schools should inform future practice and link with emerging trends emanating from related studies in other Australian and UK schools.

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