Dr. Dick Meyer

Computer technology is an innovation that has spread rapidly through society and schools.  This rapid deployment of technology in schools has created change at all levels of education.  Computer technology that was rarely available in schools only a few years ago is now commonplace.  However, there is a phenomena occurring in today’s schools that may completely change education and the delivery of instruction to students.  That phenomenon is the implementation of one-to-one computing environments at the high school level.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate one-to-one computing environments by examining the changes in teaching and student’ learning as perceived by teachers and administrators in three Midwestern school districts.  The schools are of varying location, enrollment, socio-economic status, and diversity of student population.  All three districts have adopted a one-to-one computing environment for high schools in the district and have implemented one-to-one for four or more years.  Data were gathered by interviewing teachers and administrators in the three high schools.  This data was compared to the claims of computer hardware vendors in regard to changes in teaching and learning in one-to-one computing environments.

Increased student motivation was the top change in student’ learning that was identified by the respondents in the study.  Increased student active participation, improved student research skills, improved student achievement, increased student responsibility, and increased student interaction and communication with parents, teachers, and other students were the next most frequently mentioned effects.  Flexibility in the delivery of instruction was the most frequently mentioned effect in teaching.  The next most frequently referenced teaching themes include the following: increased use of digitized learning content and/or on-line learning resources, more active learning strategies, increased use of multimedia resources, and improved communication with students and/or parents.  Claims made by computer hardware vendors as to the effects on teaching and learning, with the exception of increased collaboration with the teaching community, were confirmed by at least one respondent in the study.