ASIJ students with their new Macbooks as the school goes 1:1. AMERICAN SCHOOL IN JAPAN
“It’s a bit quieter.” “The locker room seems cleaner.” “I haven’t been getting as much paper from my teachers.” “I’m more organized.” Walking through the American School in Japan’s high school, things do look and sound a little different since the launch of its 1:1 Macbook program. The library is still a hive of activity as before, but now it’s very common to see groups of students working on their own personal laptops. They clump, sit, stand, and lean in to point, share, play, and work. Two girls stretch out between bookshelves, mirroring each other head-to-head, with laptops strategically placed to afford both face-to-face and screen views.
Is this different from what the school had expected? Staff thought they’d see different kinds of activities and assessments. They thought they’d see group work become more fluid. They thought productivity and achievement would increase. But along with the changes they had anticipated with the shift to 1:1, there have been some smaller surprises too.
The adventure began for students before classes commenced when they attended a special 90-minute, 1:1 orientation program that was designed to help them get set up and ready to use their Macs while introducing them to the new HS Acceptable Use Agreement. They completed tasks and heard peers and teachers reflect their hopes for how everyone would work in this new situation:
“We use technology every day to communicate, collaborate, and create. Technology is transforming the way people socialize, work and play, think and learn. We hope to make technology use an integral part of the learning process. Because technology can be both a powerful learning tool as well as a distraction, students and teachers have created this Acceptable Use Agreement.
This agreement is more a ‘code of conduct’ than a list of rules. Its intention is to guide students to be active and productive learners who have the respect and trust of teachers and administrators.”
Students and teachers have learnt a lot in just three weeks. It will be exciting to look back at the end of the year and reflect on the journey. — GLENDA BAKER
