One of the many benefits of my new position is the exposure to tons of new perspectives. There are 460+ teachers in Bonita USD, and I follow roughly 160 on Twitter from around the world.

(The overlap is about seven people. I’m working on that.)

Conferences and trainings expose me to people from other districts I would never have met otherwise.

But there is no substitute for teachers.

Except... a substitute teacher.

Except… a substitute teacher.

At some point on October 20th, I had a conversation with a teacher in my district that led to this:

That appeared to resonate with some other teachers.

Screenshot 2014-10-29 at 7.47.46 AM

Here’s a theory:

When students are paired up on devices, they’re engaging the material, the technology, and each other. The few occasions where a grabby student bowls over a shy student and hogs the device are rare.

This is probably due because–in a 1:1 environment–the grabby student would be playing Angry Birds in the back row and the shy student wouldn’t have anyone to answer his/her question when s/he got stuck.

Further, a 1:1 class where students are silently working on their device is relationally no different from a class where are diligently working on a packet of worksheets.

As teachers, we’re reaching a tipping point where we must create relational experiences for our students to discuss and wrestle with the material and other perspectives.

If we don’t, then free apps in the app store will replace what we do.

~Matt “2>1, and Cheaper, Too” Vaudrey