It started with a tweet

Tweet: What are the key challenges facing schools when it comes to estalablishing a 1 to 1 student laptop programme... your thoughts??

Answer: key challenge is the experiences that other schools have had in the area, negative information has been passed on, no +'s

and

another is the thinking that they will get 5-8 years out of a netbook the same as a desktop machine

thanks. Are the negatives you've heard about related to lack of evidence of benefits?

From then one it has now ended up being an email conversation
the negatives are due to the what the principals in the area have discussed the machines wouldn't last, they broke, the wouldn't run what was required. Mind you I think it comes down to what the school brought and experienced. I look at what is available now to what was available last year or the year before.

Lack of academic results? or Poor tools, poor hardware & support, or lack of good prof dev? Interested
I think it does come down to, some people saw the 1:1 computing as "the Answer" they didn't think of the training, investment in infrastructure, it was the big thing of the day. And then what they saw happening in the classroom, students just use them to write up documents, they wouldn't have seen the collaboration of what goes on, as schools didn't think of what is available with google apps now and collaborative google docs. they would have seen then in the classroom charging and not being used, or locked away.

Schools want to see use of there investment, and getting 5-8 years out of a desktop and 18 months out of a netbook are two different things. just because its a computer they think they will last that long. Who is there to repair them, schools do not have the lucky technician that we have, they have a teacher or a tech for 2 hours a week. Who them looks after the students having access and modifying the laptop to them break it and it becomes a door stop until it is fixed.

I also think schools are looking toward the mobile phone as the end device, but i am more looking at the 2:1 devices for students, the netbook/tablet and the phone/android/iphone. We are looking at our network and explaining it to salespeople, they look at me strangely when I say 2:1, all they hear at other places is 1:1.

What do you think around that idea?

and who's thinking is this? Student/Parent or school? I really appreciate your feedback : )
This is the principal who is telling me most of this, we approached the board for a 30 user netbook programme, and got told basically the above.

Our associate principal is looking at what we are proposing with the wireless network, and he has the statement at the moment, "build it and they will come" - I know, bad movie reference, but when we roll out our wireless network the student will bring the devices with them, they have laptops at home already, and if not they have mobile phones, itouches, android phones, the more devices that we can look at attaching to the network, they better as they understand. Do we want to limit the students to a one stop shop of device. or see what they bring and develop.

Ok, I realise this has been written late at night and its ben a long day, but I hope you get the idea of what I am trying to put across from the tweets.

Sometimes tweets are not enough, they start off with an idea and develop from there.