On 1:1 Computing in Schools

In the United States, the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI) is recognized as the first large-scale effort to provide school-owned computers to students. In 2002, middle school students in the New England state were provided Macintosh laptops. Since then, one-to-one initiatives have been widely adopted. In some schools, students are allowed to take their devices home, while in others, the device stays at school and is used only during the school day or in afterschool activities. Whether the devices leave campus or not, one-to-one computers are laptop or notebook models. 

Obviously, the devices for one-to-one initiates represent a very significant technology expense in schools (although enterprise networks can challenge for the most expensive component of the IT system). In addition to the expensive of obtaining the devices and licensing software, the number of devices necessary represent the largest support need in the school. For these reasons, it is not uncommon to find Chromebooks are provided under the one-to-one initiative, and devices with full operating systems are available in much smaller numbers in shared spaces. This affords teachers and students access to plentiful devices for those tasks in which low-computing capacity is sufficient, but high-capacity devices are available for tasks that demand it.