Would a Laptop for Every Student Help? In Maine It Certainly did
http://www.good.is/post/would-a-laptop-for-every-student-help-in-maine-it-certainly-did
A 2009 study by the Maine Education Policy Research Institute at the University of Southern Maine concluded that laptops improve writing skills and have boosted state writing test scores. And, thanks to innovative laptop-based teaching techniques, 50 percent fewer ninth graders in Freeport, Maine now need remedial math.
10 years after laptops come to Maine schools, educators say technology levels playing field for students
http://www.sunjournal.com/state/story/988012
In the years since thousands of laptops have been given to students and teachers, they’ve become such a part of classrooms that teachers often underestimate how much they use them, Mao said.
“They’ll say, ‘I don’t do too much with laptops,’" he said. "But you watch them in class, and you see teachers with classroom Web page where all kinds of information — homework, class work, recommended sites — is available. Teachers e-mail students and parents. They give out assignments on laptops. It’s become so common it all seems mundane now."
In classrooms in New Hampshire, it’s a whole different exercise, he said. “For essays, students there go to the library where they have 10 computers for 20 kids. They get information through books, exactly how I did in the ’70s.”
While there’s room for improvement, “teachers are doing great things with the laptops,” Mao said.
Maine is recognized as a "world leader” for technology in classrooms, King said. Delegations from Sweden, Denmark, Canada, Israel, Peru, Australia and Ireland, among others, have visited Maine to learn about laptops.
While some cities and counties have given out laptops, Maine is the only state with a statewide program. “Pennsylvania started a program but closed its doors when funding went away,” Mao said. “Idaho is in the middle of a legislative battle to create a program.”
Schools making laptops a bigger priority for students
http://www.masshightech.com/stories/2010/08/02/weekly7-Schools-making-laptops-a-bigger-priority-for-students.html
While research indicates positive gains in schools where laptop computers are assigned to every student, a lack of funding is slowing the widespread adoption of such programs. Paying for hardware, software, and networking infrastructure, training and support ads up to a bottom line total many districts can’t afford as they deal with shrinking budgets.
“The biggest barrier is cost,” said Damian Bebell, an assistant research professor at Boston College who has studied the impact of one-to-one computer initiatives in schools. “There are very few programs with more than one or two years under their belt. Where the money comes from is the stumbling block.”
Stories from Main Street: Montvale School Ditches Books, Chalkboards for Laptops
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/03/28/stories-from-main-street-montvale-school-ditches-books-chalkboards-for-laptops
“I’d say the vast majority of our subject areas have broken away from textbooks,” says Erik Gunderson, director of curriculum. “We have our teachers collaborating with one another in the various school buildings that we have. And so they’ll either Skype or video conference.”
The students, too, are making internet connections with their laptops.
If you consider how much has been spent in most school districts for computer labs, interactive white boards, and computers in general (and the need to continuously replace out of date hardware) the costs of a project like this (i.e. to provide laptops for all high school students…) is not as painful as you might imagine.
Some of these quotes can start to give you a sense of easily laptops can be integrated into a curriculum which already has typing classes, MS Office classes (i.e. learning how to effectively use MS Office tools like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint). With the potential that most entry level laptops and NetBooks provide (a standardized platform to use common tools, the ability to use webcams (i.e. Skype, etc.), and to leverage what is already in place…Spending the same or likely more) for iPads (to other tablet computers) seems to be of less value…right now…
