1 to 1: Maintaining the Human Connection?

Dean Shareski's recent post on his "Ideas and Thoughts" blog seems to oddly question the push for a 1-to-1 ratio of students and computer devices. Shareski's work may lead one to assume he is in unanimously in favour of increased technological access in education, but he poses a question that I think is intended to keep technologically eager stakeholders in education vision and goals in check. And to me, it's a welcome question.


Given the flurry of comments to this post, I'm pretty sure that some people read this question as a questioning of educators working in a 1-to-1 situation. I do not believe this is the thrust of Shareski's post. He is neither attacking or second guessing the excellent work that can be done by professionals in such a setting. I think he's questioning the bigger picture of pushing so hard for a 1-to-1 environment that we lose sight of the importance in face to face interaction.


Speaking from my own recent (current) experience of pursuing my Masters degree in a completely online format, I feel the lost Shareski laments about. I have never met face to face with my classmates and as a result, I do not feel a strong kinship with them. Certainly we are undergoing similar trials under simultaneous deadlines, but connections that would be made in person cannot be relied upon. In some ways I think that has made this cohort more efficient. We don't "waste time" making small talk, but we also do not learn much about one another beyond a paragraph posted on the first week of class. Now don't get me wrong, this is a graduate level program and I'm confident that each and every one of my cohorts is a well-adjusted adult learner with at least one degree completed. We are not adolescents struggling with identity, popularity, sexuality, trends, and acceptance. But our students often are.


Just like Dean Shareski, I am not about to start lobbying my administration for less computers and old software, but I do want to keep my pursuit of advancing educational technologies in check. All technologies have great potential to bring people together or drive to them apart and fostering human connectedness is more the goal of education than the blind ambition of stuff.