Articulate Your Vision: Experts on 1-to-1 computing say district leaders considering a digital conversion must clearly outline their goals. 鈥淎 lot of the doomed initiatives start with the superintendent announcing that [the district is] going to give a tablet or a laptop to every student,鈥� said Keith R. Krueger, the chief executive officer of the Washington-based Consortium for School Networking. 鈥淭hey need to start with why they are doing it and what the learning will look like.鈥�
Start Small: The biggest mistake many districts make is trying to move too quickly. 鈥淵ou just can鈥檛 rush,鈥� said Bob Moore, an education consultant and a former school district technology official. 鈥淪tart small. Do a pilot. Roll out over a period of years. Don鈥檛 let the sense of urgency force you to make rash decisions.鈥� Mr. Moore suggests that districts start in one grade or one subject area.
Get Schools Tech-Ready: The 144,000-student Charlotte-Mecklenburg district in North Carolina deployed 32,000 Chromebooks to middle school students this year. But it took the district two years to lay the technological groundwork to make that happen, said Valerie Truesdale, the district鈥檚 chief of technology. 鈥淣one of our schools was 100 percent wireless,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t took us a solid year just to provision the classrooms and get the bandwidth where it needs to be.鈥�
Prepare Teachers: Teacher training should go beyond how to use devices and software, said Leslie A. Wilson, the chief executive officer of the One-to-One Institute, a Mason, Mich.-based nonprofit that supports school expansion of effective 1-to-1 computing efforts. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a big difference between training and professional learning,鈥� Ms. Wilson said. 鈥淭eachers have to learn new things, change old habits, develop networks.鈥�
Visit Other Districts: Lenny J. Schad, the chief technology information officer of the 210,000-student Houston district, sent teachers and principals to visit the Mooresville, N.C., school system, which had already successfully implemented 1-to-1 computing. 鈥淲e wanted people to see it with their own eyes, to walk around and see the engagement,鈥� he said.
Engage the Community: Mark Edwards, the superintendent of the 5,600-student Mooresville district, said broad-based community engagement is also important. 鈥淚f the game plan is limited to a select group of people, the potential for success is lost,鈥� Mr. Edwards said. 鈥淚nclude the school board, elected leaders, teachers, principals, parent groups so that there is a sense of community vision.鈥�
Build a Brand: Mr. Schad said Houston officials built a marketing plan around their initiative, which they call Power Up. 鈥淲e felt it was really important to have a brand,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f you talk to any parent, they know what it is.鈥� Ms. Wilson of the One-to-One Institute said that was a problem with Los Angeles鈥� Common Core Technology Project鈥攏ot everyone knew what it was. 鈥淓veryone needs to understand clearly what is being done and why,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat doesn鈥檛 mean they have to agree, but they have to understand.鈥�
Make Content King: One lesson districts should take away from the failure in Los Angeles is that content matters, said Ms. Wilson. 鈥淭he problem is districts buy devices鈥攁nd then put textbooks on them,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here is nothing transformative about that.鈥� Many successful 1-to-1 districts collect content from a variety of sources. 鈥淭he new digital content that is being developed is so superior to old-world print, and it鈥檚 cost efficient,鈥� said Mr. Edwards of Mooresville, which uses about 50 different content providers for its K-12 classes. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 imagine using only one source,鈥� he said.
