One-to-one laptops in K-12 classrooms: voices of students

Abstract

In planning educational technology initiatives, the concerns of many stakeholders are typically taken into account, including the concerns of administrators, teachers, parents, and employers. The perspective of students are recognized as valuable, but not often queried or considered. This paper explores the opinions of K-12 students about a one-to-one laptop programme implementation through content analysis of 362 blog postings made by these students expressing their thoughts on the topic at three time points in two years. Employing a bottom-up coding strategy, this paper identified seven themes that represented students’ opinion of technology use in schools: more efficient and productive learning, tools for better writing, access to information, engagement with new media, remaining relevant in a technological world, share and learn from peers, and individualized and differentiated instruction. This study suggested that, when new technology tools are used in schools, students should not only be viewed as learners but also be considered as real writers with valuable opinions. Students also should be provided the opportunity to write for an authentic purpose and audience using diverse forms of digital media.