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May 15, 2001
Laptop Lessons: Exploring the Promise of One-to-One Computing
By Kim Carter
When Maine Governor Angus King recently proposed using the state's $50 million surplus to outfit every seventh- and eighth-grade student and teacher in the state with a laptop computer, the phrase "laptop learning" became headline news across the nation. And when the New York City Board of Education approved a plan to provide the city's fourth-grade students and teachers with notebook computers next year-and eventually deploy some 850,000 portable devices to all students, teachers, and administrators in the system-it confirmed that laptop programs have indeed become a full-fledged movement.
But what does it mean when an entire state and a huge metropolis decide to undertake such large-scale initiatives? What Maine and New York, and an increasing number of communities across the country, are betting on, and what more than 1,000 public and private schools are discovering, is that one-to-one computing-one child, one computer (and not two-to-one or even one and one-half-to-one, experts stress)-is making a difference. In an age when everyone, from parents to community groups to legislators, is calling for increased accountability in education, and with the prospect of an even more stringent focus on measurement with the Bush administration's "more freedom, more accountability" approach, laptop programs are being viewed as one workable strategy to address such problems as low achievement, poor attendance, and equal access to technology.
The larger premise of the laptop program, however, is that one-to-one computing will ultimately revolutionize the way teachers teach and the way students learn-a desirable and even essential outcome for the digital age. Here, we look at what we know about laptop learning so far-and what challenges schools just starting out can expect to encounter.
Read on:
The Results are In: Laptops Improve Student Performance
Getting Started: A Question of Vision
Money Matters
Protecting the Equipment
Getting Staff Up and Running
What's Ahead?
Kim Carter is a contributing editor to T&L and director of information services and technology at Souhegan High School in Amherst, N.H.
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