#FutureReady Comes Full Circle

Mike Magboo’s (@allurbaser) latest post hit me like a ton of bricks. I’d honestly forgotten that at Le Grand High School, we were doing 1:1 netbooks running ubermix way back in 2009. I know if feels like I’ve been doing 1:1 forever, now I remember why.

In hindsight, for being on the bleeding edge, we got the basics right. We knew that we needed a solid infrastructure, especially wifi. We had to have the devices in classrooms, just talking about them wasn’t enough. We had to have teachers open to change and a curriculum/instruction purpose to focus that change. We realized very quickly that we needed lots of support, both on the tech side and on the professional development side. And all of that needed to be rolled into a compelling vision for student success and a long term goal of 1:1 district wide. (Big thanks to Mike Niehoff and Jon Corippo for opening their innovative 1:1 High School up to us and sharing in the process along the way and to Jim Klein for ubermix, the OS that made 1:1 netbooks possible)

Reading Mike’s post, it is clear that Le Grand has continued to evolve and learn to the point where their 1:1 program isn’t about the technology anymore, it’s about teaching and learning. That’s #eduawesome because that’s where we all need to be to be able to prepare today’s students for their futures.

Danny Silva (@iteachag) and class. 1:1 Take Home Netbook pilot, circa 2009

Danny Silva (@iteachag) and class. 1:1 Take Home Netbook pilot, circa Jan 2010

It took me a few false starts since leaving Le Grand, but roll forward to today and once again I find myself in a forward thinking organization that got the basics right. Together we are continuing to reflect, adjust and move teaching and learning forward.

In both cases, these organizations were future ready before being #FutureReady was cool. It’s good to be a part of organizations like that.