Why 1:1?

Why 1:1?

One of the reasons we give tools like crayons and pencils to young students is to develop their facility with these tools. Learning to color and draw are skills students will need for future success. Learning to write with a pencil or pen is a lifelong skill. And to develop these skills associated with crayons and pencils, students need regular practice using these tools.

In the same vein, by providing digital tools to students, we are providing them practice to develop using these tools—but in ways that go beyond communication. Students will use their iPad to develop questions, write English or another language, to write music, to create videos, and to research solutions to problems. But using the tool itself is something we want for all students. The future work in almost every discipline will require the use of digital tools. Students who have regular exposure to, and gain facility with digital tools—such as the iPad—will be better equipped for this world of future work. We call this becoming future ready.

Yet wanting students to master the hardware and software is not the only rationale for providing devices for each student to use. Today, our schools are leveraging digital content, apps, and the iPad to deliver richer learning experiences. We call this deeper learning.

When students learn through the creation of multimedia, augmented reality, and through the use of adaptive tools that help individualize each student's experience, we are helping students apply knowledge, develop skills and competencies aligned with the Profile of a Goochland Graduate. Deeper learning is about how to leverage all of our resources to provide opportunities to learn through collaborative teamwork, with personalization, real-world applications, critical thinking, and creative communication.

Equity and Balance

Aligned with our mission of maximizing every student's potential, we believe every student deserves to have access to a flexible learning tool such as the iPad. But we also have to consider balance: adding more iPad into our lessons and learning experiences doesn't automatically equate to better learning. After all, too much cowbell is, well, too much cowbell.

We have no expectation in our classrooms that the iPad is always used. It's a resource and we encourage our teachers to choose the best resources to support learning. Visit our classrooms and you'll find that students experience a healthy mixture of learning resources: from children's engineering tasks using found materials to support STEM, to traditional books and paper, in addition to learning outside, on field trips, and yes, with the use of 1:1 iPads and occasionally laptops.