Dive Brief:

• In Virginia's Albemarle County Public Schools, the adoption of a 1:1 device program has prompted the district to do away with the traditional motif of lockers lining its hallways, replacing them with charging stations.
• This year, just 25 of the district’s 2,000 high-schoolers requested lockers, thanks to the move away from print textbooks.
• In place of the lockers, the hallways now also have whiteboards and benches to encourage students to socialize and continue collaborations from class.

Dive Insight:

Education technology experts have forecast for years that adopting devices as instructional tools would transform the ways schools operate in unexpected ways. But in most cases, that was taken to mean more obvious shifts like time management, data systems, and student protection.

Albemarle’s overhaul is an example of the less-obvious kind of change that will have to take place. But other districts that have rolled out 1-to-1 programs say charging stations are at least part of the key to a successful deployment. “It’s inevitable that students will forget to charge their devices at home,” Javier Baca, chief information officer of Sunnyside Unified School District in Tucson, AZ told District Administration. Experts, however, typically recommend a less drastic move than Albemarle’s: mobile charging stations.

For more on Albemarle's steps toward School 2.0, take a look back at our coverage of a panel on the topic at this year's ISTE conference, featuring Superintendent Pamela Moran and tech chief Ira David Socol.