1 to 1 comes to the monastery

You may have seen this video before: Brother Ansgar is introduced to the new technology called a 'book'. 

It's always worth another look, but what is not so well known is a later conversation between the two monks, also based on a real event in history. There is no video, but fortunately a scroll was found and has been translated from the original Norwegian.

Ansgar comes into Morten's cell. Morten is reading.

Ansgar: I've got much more used to these books now. But I hear that the trainee monks will all be bringing their own books next year.

Morten: Yes, that's the new 1 to 1 programme. We're hoping that it will inspire the novices and the monks to teach and learn in new ways.

Ansgar: Yeees... but I'm not sure it's such a good idea. Just because the Abbot of Clervaux is doing it, doesn't mean we have to follow suit.

Morten: We were 1 to 1 at my previous monastery. I wasn't sure about it in the beginning, but I soon found that it allowed me to do things I couldn't do before in the schoolroom.

Ansgar: Ah yes, but you've always been a lover of new technology. What about the rest of us? I already teach my novices very well. I don't see the point of bringing something new and distracting into the lessons. If they all have a book with them, how do I know they are listening to me?

Morten: You tell them to close it. You are in charge. And you're right, Ansgar, you are a very good teacher and your students appreciate that. But the book is a new development which affects all areas of life. Education too. It is not fair on your novices to ignore it.

Ansgar: But I don't know where to start! You're asking me to do a completely different job...

Morten: That's not the way to look at it, Ansgar. First of all, you are already an expert. You know how to teach your subject; your students do very well and you know a good teaching idea when you see one. You are always looking for ways to improve how you teach. All a 1 to 1 book environment does is to give you new ways to engage the novices in addition to the excellent things you are already doing.

Ansgar: But where do I start? I'm not used to a 1 to 1 schoolroom. Suddenly I have to do every lesson in this new way.

Morten: No you don't. Don't listen to those who say that a revolution has occurred. You will evolve into a 1 to 1 monk at your own pace. Why would you throw away everything that works so well? But I know you are honest with yourself and you will see ways that you can teach your novices better using books: new ways you have waited your whole career to see made possible.


Ansgar: So it's OK to have lessons with no books?

Morten: Of course. There are many occasions when the old methods such as scrolls, plainsong or meditation are the most suitable. But it would be a mistake not to take advantage of what 1 to 1 books allow you to do which you could never do before. This monastery admires risk-takers, so try something new, but do it with your least successful unit where the stakes are not too high - not everything will go right the first time. Also, work with your colleagues; share ideas and experiences. And talk to the Book Facilitator; he will come to your cell with some ideas or he can meet your novices in the cloister and model a lesson with 1 to 1 books.

Ansgar: I'm afraid of what the novices will say. They already know so much about books.

Morten: It's easy to think that, but don't assume because they have their noses buried in a book all day they know how to use it in an academic situation. The novices are in a rut with their technology. They still need you and your teaching expertise to help them use the books to understand your subject. The role of the good monk has always been to take the novices out of their comfort zone, to bring them to higher levels of thinking. The beauty of 1 to 1 books is that you have more possibilities than before to do just that. All of your novices now have access to knowledge when they need it and at the speed that they can learn. That leaves your hands free to help individuals, suggest another book or give them different tasks.

Ansgar: I don't even need to use the books all lesson, it could just be one activity...

Morten: Exactly.

Ansgar: But sometimes things will go wrong...

Morten: That's life, Ansgar. Saint Sirken has preached: "If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original".

Ansgar: But I'm so busy...

Morten: I'm not going to tell you that you won't have to do some work and spend some time learning new ways with 1 to 1 books, but there are many ways to be efficient and effective: working with your fellow monks, Ecclesiastical Development, getting ideas from colleagues at other monasteries. You are not afraid of a bit of hard labour, Brother Ansgar. The important thing is to be motivated and to see that you are not being asked to change completely; the monastery wants you to apply your expertise to the new tool and become an even better teacher for your novices. You may even enjoy the journey.

Ansgar: Well if you put it like that...

Morten: And now I must leave you: the Abbot was reading in the refectory and has spilt mead on his scroll.

Both: God be with you, brother!

The Long Road to 1 to 1 (Step 3)

You would have thought that, 17 months after my last post, a lot must have happened: 1 to 1 would be here, for example. But that is not the case. 1 to 1 isn't here, though we have a definite date more than a year hence. To recap: September 2013 was originally the date at which students would all be required to come to school with a 'device'. The teachers would not get a device, or rather, they would continue with desktops. And there was no justification for Why?

That was the plan, no other details. It has been a good move to push it back a year, even two. Where we are now might be called Year Minus One. In 2015, a year from now, three year groups, grades 6 to 8, will be required to bring a laptop to every lesson (either Mac or Windows). About one year earlier, the teachers of these students will receive a laptop - these will all be the same, and probably Windows. In the 2016-17 school year, the rest of the students (the older ones) will be obliged to have a laptop. Possibly, by then, many will have brought them in before the deadline. The second phase of teachers machines will happen one year before (in Year Zero, to continue the terminology).

It's a plan, as they say. Why it has this particular shape is complicated: the phased introduction is budgetary in respect of the teachers' machines; it also has a justification in terms of being able to focus PD and resources. Secondly, the phasing begins with the Middle School students. For many, this is not the intuitive decision, perhaps because secondary schools tend to design programmes from the endpoint backwards: what does the university entrant need? and deduce the earlier years pedagogy from there. Starting 1 to 1 in the MS, however, is a greater investment since the students will be staying longer at the school. Also, in theory, the stakes for teachers who wish to innovate are less high, so their willingness to experiment should be greater. Being, in theory at least, less beholden to content, the Middle School has space to try things out. Conversely, the relatively change-averse Upper School teachers will have longer to get their heads around the new landscape.

The students' computers will be 'platform agnostic'. Why? In truth, this is because the school is squeamish about requiring something too specific and had already started using the phrase BYOD back in 2012 (without knowing what it implied). I think, though, we can see this as an advantage, so long as we can also put in some constraints. Allowing either Apple or Microsoft should force more content into the cloud to enable students to access resources using their browsers. It should encourage teachers to think in terms of project-based learning rather than program-specific activities. We will, however, stipulate some technical requirements: laptops with particular specs and programs.

So given the agnostic argument, why would the teachers not also have a choice? The reasons for this are several: for the institution, it is much more efficient to buy, set up, train for, support one machine. Furthermore, even limited choice can be dangerous. Some staff can be expected to later regret the impulse choices they make and then we would have to deal with their dissatisfaction. Better not to go there.

So there we are. Many details will follow, some may even change due to force majeure, and I may have forgotten to mention some.

It has been quite a journey to get this far, to have administrative agreement and to have communicated the broad plan to staff. We have even started to soften up the teaches for the main assault with some PD. But totally missing so far are several things: an announcement to the parents; a detailed plan for the introduction; and a strategy and budget to prepare the school for the change. None of these will emerge painlessly from this particular institution, so I feel a responsibility, from the bottom up, to set these things in train.

Watch this space, hopefully more frequently than every year or so.