Transitioning to a 1:1 Campus

My district is transitioning all high schools to 1:1 next year.  I'm currently on the Digital Instruction Transition team.  We are attending PD now to help with the transition next school year.  I'm planning on blogging about our transition process.

Some things we've discussed already as we start this amazing process:

1.  It is scary!

Going from traditional print classrooms to digital is a HUGE transition.  For many teachers, it is going to force them to look at their lessons and experiences to see how they can adapt them to fit the growing digital expectations.  Our goal as the digital transition team is to try and ease the fears of the teachers.

2.  The students will not be as prepared as we think they will be.

I've said this before, just because they may be called digital natives doesn't mean they have a complete understanding about how to use the technology in a meaningful way.  They can tweet and snap all day and night, but if I ask them to create a meaningful presentation using digital tools, many of them are at a loss as to what that exactly means.  Just like the teachers will need training, we are planning ways to effectively teach the students to use the devices meaningfully.

3.  We must find ways to help those teachers that might be resistant.

This is where I know we will have to work our hardest.  There are a number of teachers that are resistant to this change.  It goes beyond the fear factor from #1.  This is about the contrarians in a school that see this as a fad, and they will continue to do just the bare minimum.  How are we going to reach them?  What can we do to help them with the transition that will benefit both them and their students? I know we need to get these teachers on board quickly so they're vocal opposition to this can be minimized.  This is the scariest part for our team because we know the success of this is dependent on teacher buy-in, and we need to get the right teachers to buy in from the beginning.

4.  This is an exciting time to be in education!

Every training we go to, I leave overly excited about the significance of this transition.  We will begin to instruct the students in a way that is going to radically transform their lives!  I can't wait to start adding so much more to my lessons because of the technology.  There are so many apps and programs that can help make my classroom an even better place.

I can't wait to see where this journey leads us!  I'm looking forward to blogging about and sharing our experiences.