The 1:1 Learning Initiative has been in development for the past four years. After numerous discussions and proposals, it is now being put into practice for the 2012-2013 school year.

This year and for years to come at Wayland High School, students will have to be a lot more careful with their backpacks.

Each backpack will be carrying a brand new MacBook Air computer that was given to students at Wayland High School during these past few weeks. During the summer, students also participated in an hour-long session to make sure that they know how to use their brand new computer.

Students received these computers as part of the 1:1 Learning Initiative and will be able to keep them until they graduate.

1:1 has been in development for the past four years.

Last year, a group of students and teachers visited the Yarmouth High School in Maine to see what a school utilizing 1:1 was like. For additional research about the 1:1 program, Latin and English teacher Edmund DeHoratius also gave some of his students iPads, and the Wayland administration looked into how the Beverly and Dedham school districts use computers as well as the computer usage of some schools in Ohio and North Carolina.

After numerous discussions and proposals, the school board finally agreed on giving all students Macbook Airs. The school committee also considered iPads instead of Macbook Airs, but the iPads seemed to break more easily.

Wayland parents were invited to attend an information session in November 2011 where they were told how WHS planned to use the computers. After further review of the plan, the proposal to give every student a laptop passed along with school budget on April 10, 2012.

“This technology is not only a tool for learning and a gateway to information but in many instances is the lesson itself,” Principal Patrick Tutwiler said in an article for the Wayland Town Crier last year. “Although its basic premise revolves around the hardware of a laptop computer, the laptop is simply the means to achieve the goal of the initiative, which is to further develop in each student the four ‘C”s critical to 21st century learning: communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking.”

The school has also started to use other technology with the introduction of the Eno boards in every classroom and the use of ItsLearning to post assignments and readings.

During the 2011-2012 school year, Wayland teachers participated in a teacher 1:1 training where they all were offered their own computer to familiarize themselves with the new technology that would come with the new initiative.

“I spent last year trying to be as paperless as possible, and I see the 1:1 as only furthering that,” said DeHoratius. “I’ve already moved my course guide and my book sign out online in anticipation of the 1:1 and look forward to integrating the laptops into my classes on a regular basis.”

“By allowing technology to accompany each student through their day, we enable our faculty to integrate opportunities in technological learning into their curriculum, both in the classroom and with a seamless transition to the student’s learning experience at home,” Tutwiler said.