Technology and Today’s Learners
Access - What Resources
The number of computers in schools has increased rapidly, and these computers are interconnected so that students can communicate with one another and can access information and services through the Internet. The most basic way to represent student access seems to be to describe the average number of students per computer. At present the ratio of students to computers is 1.7 to 1 (Gray, Thomas & Lewis, 2010). However, we also know that access can vary significantly. There are even great differences from state to state. According to Technology Counts, a publication that attempts to offer an annual perspective on technology in K-12 institutions (Editorial Projects in Education, 2009), South Dakota had the best student to computer ratio (2:1). However, 19 other states require that at least twice as many students share a computer. You may have noted that the student to computer ratio reported in 2010 indicates that the national average is more favorable than the ratio reported by the state with the lowest student to computer ratio in 2009. Such differences are a function of the rapid pace of change, the difficulty in obtaining and rapidly communicating descriptive data, and different methodological approaches to surveying schools to obtain information. There is no official source for such data and comparing information from different sources can be challenging. What you might take from this is a sense of what is typical and the recognition that individual situations can vary considerably from the norm.
There have been other trends in student access. In recent years, the technology available to students appears to have gradually shifted from fixed location desktop machines often housed in computer laboratories toward a larger proportion of the available computers being located in classrooms and finally toward the use of laptops allowing even more flexible patterns of use. Of course, most schools deploy resources using a combination of strategies sometimes augmenting the computers available in a fixed location with carts of laptops that can be moved about as needs arise. So, recent data indicate the computers assigned to classrooms allow an average student to computer ratio of 5:1, but with the addition of computers that can be easily moved into classrooms the ratio drops to 2.4:1 (Gray, Thomas & Lewis, 2010). Some school districts have made the commitment to provide each student with a computer and these programs, referred to as ubiquitous technology programs or sometimes 1:1 programs, have been implemented in approximately 5% of schools serving approximately 4% of the U.S. K-12 population (Devaney, 2009). Immediacy of access has some important implications. A tool you carry with you is likely to be used differently than a tool you must schedule to use. The immediate access available in 1:1 schools has sometimes been extended to the student’s home. Consider how a teacher might think differently about assignments when the teacher could be confident all students would have access to a computer outside of the classroom.