A Model for Successful 1-to-1 Learning with Laptop Initiatives  The MLLS evaluation team uses a success-based approach to evaluation. We use the research base and the experience of large scale educational technology initiatives to move beyond the question of whether technology can improve student learning to using the idenetified conditions and strategies for using technology which do improve the quality of a school's instructional program as a benchmark for evaluation. Doing so, the MLLS evaluation team can provide critical formative assessment to local project leaders about what they are doing well, what challenges they face, and can make recommendations on how to address the challenges. The MLLS evaluation plan is based on a success model for  1-to-1 learning with laptop initiatives pictured below. The model illustrated below expands on the list of essential strategies for success within Maine's learning with laptop initiative. The leaders of the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI - http://www.mainelearns.org/), the first statewide learning with laptop initiative, has been working since 2001 with 240 middle schools across Maine. Some have demonstrated more success than others and MLTI staff have identified strategies (http://moore.portlandschools.org/ibook/strategy_links.html) which have contributed significantly to the success in those schools and which can be identified as missing in less successful schools. The success strategies fall into five categories: vision and goal setting; leadership; professional development; technical support; and procedures and policies. The success model here acknowledges evidence of learning as the desired outcome and recognizes two critical components for success: teacher practice and leadership; and four  supportive but necessary components: professional development, technology access, funding, and partnerships. Download a PDF of this success model (64 KB). The model presented here adds a system map to reflect how the various components relate to each other. Indicators for each of the seven components are also provided to help guide the evaluation process. The model also recognizes that not all of these components are of the same level of importance to the success of the project. The two most important factors are  the quality of the teacher's practice, and the quality of the leadership of the learning with laptop initiative. MLTI has identified leadership as the single most important factor to the success of the implementation of a learning with laptop initiative. The vision and expectations, set by the principal and project leadership team, set the tone of the project and are critical for teachers to effectively begin to integrate the technology into their teaching and the students' learning.  Further, the most significant aspect of this evaluation is the focus on teaching and learning. Analyzing over 700 studies, Schacter (1995) concludes that technology initiatives have to focus on teaching and learning, not the technology, in order to be successful: "One of the enduring difficulties about technology and education is that a lot of people think about the technology first and the education later" (Schacter, 1995, p. 11). Studies that show a negative impact of technology often indicates that the initiatives themselves focused on hardware and software, or teachers taught about the technology instead of using the technology to enhance learning experiences. Further, Does Technology Improve Student Achievement? (Educational Research Service, 2001) states, "…The true value of technology for learning lies not in learning to use technology, but in using technology to learn."  Teacher practices is the most critical component to the initiative's impact on students.

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: May 10, 2006