Can a public school with a tight budget re-envision learning by giving every student a MacBook Air? This is exactly what my school did last August for all 1,150 students in grades 9–12. This decision was not a knee-jerk reaction to the pressing need to outfit students with devices to take the PARCC test, but rather it was the next phase in a three-year implementation plan designed with careful thought and input from all stakeholders. Our goal for a 1:1 device program was to transform teaching and learning to be more relevant, engaging, and personalized.
How did it go? Administration looked at test scores, attendance records, and teacher survey feedback, among other data. These methods are fine, but what about asking the students for their opinion? Student voice is a key element in improving schools, and research shows what students have to say matters in their learning.
The power of student voice motivated me to conduct interviews. As the school library media specialist, I was interested in finding out about student literacy experiences using laptops on a daily basis. Over the course of a week, I engaged in conversations with a diverse sampling of students and focused on three key questions. What was it like reading on their laptops? What kinds of digital resources were they reading? Were their comprehension skills different while reading from a screen versus print? These are my anecdotal findings.
Reading text on laptops is an adjustment. Students indicated that, although they were now fairly comfortable reading text on a screen, it took them some time to adjust. A common observation was that they had to re-read text on a screen more often than they did reading print text in order to understand it. They also preferred short texts because their minds tended to wander while reading longer texts on screens.
E-textbooks have advantages to traditional textbooks. Students liked the easy navigation of an e-textbook. The tabs at the top of the page were helpful to find their place and to get to the correct chapter. The dictionary and highlight tools were valuable aides in comprehension. Students also found it a useful option to save annotated text in their e-textbook account.
Print text still has some benefits. Students continued to read print fiction books for required class reading and for pleasure. Many students said they like the feel of a book in their hands and needed time off-screen to rest their eyes. Students who complained of eye strain said their teachers were sensitive to it and would give them time to rest or switch to print text.
Digital note-taking tools are helpful. The district loaded every student’s laptop with the basic version of Evernote, a tool to help take notes and organize work. When students were reading text online, they would split their screen with Evernote on one side and the text on the other. This strategy enabled them to copy and paste or type notes of what they were reading onto the notecard. The district also loaded Adobe Acrobat Reader DC on every device. Under the guidance of teachers, students learned how to use the note-taking and highlighting features in this program to help break down and annotate PDF texts for understanding.
Access to current information engages students. Students liked how the laptops gave them access to current information in a variety of formats on the Web. Instead of being handed photocopies of older articles, students were given links to relevant and timely information in the form of text, videos, images, graphs, and more. In addition, students could immediately look up information on the Web if they had a question or wanted to learn more. On-demand access to information on the Web provided a richer context, allowing students to self-direct their learning.
Students talk less during school. Speaking and listening are important literacy skills and students are not getting as much practice in this area. Now that they have laptops, they spend more time staring at a screen rather than talking, especially to each other in social situations. I noticed my library was a lot quieter this year. Unintended consequences like this need to be examined and it was interesting that a student voiced the observation negatively.
Conversations with students about technology and literacy in education can inform our practice from a multitude of angles. As my school moves forward, we will reflect on the experiences of all stakeholders, including students, to better understand how they best learn with technology.
Mary Moen is a library media specialist at Chariho Regional High School in Wood River Junction, RI. This article is part of a series from the Technology in Literacy Education Special Interest Group (TILE-SIG).