Advocating for your 1-to-1 Initiative Educators and school leaders all over the country are having to explain, justify, and defend their learning with laptop programs to school boards, community members, and state legislatures, even when the schools are finding success with their programs. Sometimes the inititive is supported, but everyone wants to make sure they can justify the cost. Sometimes there is opposition from people who don't understand or believe in the initiative. It especially seems like every year when the budgetting cycle is in full swing, schools are put in this position once again What can educators and school leaders do to become and stay prepared to defend programs they believe in? These pages are organized around information and suggestions in four areas: Why Do 1-to-1? Share Global Evidence Share Local Evidence Dealing with the Arguments Against Your Program Finding Creative Ways to Fund 1-to-1 These pages are prepared to help answer your questions, so that you can get and remain prepared to justify your 1-to-1 learning with laptop program. This web site is intended to help you become an 1-to-1 advocate, especially for your own program. Note: Portions of this web site are from a book by this author on what middle level leaders need to know about technology.  The book is under development for the National Middle School Association's Middle Level Leadership Series (used with permission of the editor).   Why do 1-to-1? Why is 1-to-1 so important to education right now? Is it really just about developing technology skills?   Share Global Evidence Do laptops really improve learning? How can we look at the question of raising achievement? What is the evidence from across the country? Who else is doing 1-to-1?   Share Local Evidence What is the evidence from across Maine? What are the strategies for success with 1-to-1? How can we gather our evidence about what's happening locally? How can we tell the story of our program and share our evidence? Dealing with the Arguments Against Your Program Are mobile labs of laptops just as good as 1-to-1?   Finding Creative Ways to Fund 1-to-1 How are schools finding ways to fund their programs?

The 1-to-1 Advocate 1-to-1 Evaluation MLLS Home MLTI MLLS Research Briefs         The Maine Learning with Laptop Studies is a project of the Maine Center for Meaningful Engaged Learning in collaboration with The Institute for the Integration of Technology Into Teaching and Learning   Maine Center for Meaningful Engaged Learning University of Maine at Farmington 252 Main St. Farmington, ME 04938 http://www.mcmel.org Mike Muir, Director mmuir@maine.edu 207-778-7179 Inservice Available   The Institute for the Integration of Technology Into Teaching and Learning University of North Texas Matthews Hall Rm. 316 1300 Highland Ave. Denton, TX 76203 http://www.iittl.unt.edu/ Gerald Knezek, Director gknezek@gmail.com 940-565-2057 Rhonda Christensen, Associate Director rhonda.christensen@gmail.com Created by Mike Muir Last updated: September 27, 2005