Laptops: Jury Is Out
High Schools Are Pulling 1-on-1 Laptops After Disappointing Results
While laptops in the classroom have been found to improve learning, having personal laptops issued to students may not be as beneficial as once thought.
Technical Nightmare
Many schools are overwhelmed with laptop computers issued to students.
- Students are abusing the computers. Repairs are endless when students neglect and abuse the laptops. Since the computers are issued by the schools and not purchased by students, the ownership is not there to care for the laptops as you would your own.
- Pornography is being downloaded onto the computers. Even though schools put up firewalls to prevent inappropriate material, students soon learn to get around the firewall.
- Cheating on tests is becoming a problem. While taking a test on the laptop, a student can slip into an email account, ask another student the answer, and return to taking the test. Teachers can not observe every student every minute.
- Scores have not improved with the new technology. After several years studies show that the new technology does not improve test scores.
- Students are hacking into local businesses and raising havoc with day to day operations. Quite often, these businesses are the taxpayers that have indirectly paid for the computers.
- School servers can not keep up with the pace during peak times like study halls. The network freezes allowing no one to work.
- Some students are using the computers to harass other students thinking they can remain anonymous. Some have been arrested.
- Teachers are having a difficult time incorporating this technology into lesson plans that must meet state standards.
- Some schools claim that students rarely use the computers for school related purposes but rather play games and download music.
Which Schools Are Pulling Laptops?
- Liverpool Central, Liverpool, New York
- Everett A. Rea Elementary School, Costa Mesa, California
- Matoaca High School, outside Richmond, Virginia
- Mount Hermon School, western Massachusetts
- Broward County, Florida
[Winnie Hu, nytimes.com, May 4, 2007]
Support For Laptops
Many schools do support the use of laptops. Used properly and with supervision, the computers have been found to improve academics and increase enthusiasm for learning in low income students. Mark Warschauer, author of "Laptops and Literacy: Learning in the Wireless Classroom", found no academic improvement with laptops but states, "Where laptops and Internet use make a difference are in innovation, creativity, autonomy and independent research. If the goal is to get kids up to basic standard levels, then maybe laptops are not the tool. But if the goal is to create the George Lucas and Steve Jobs of the future, then laptops are extremely useful." Warschauer teaches at the University of California at Irvine as a professor of education. [Winnie Hu, nytimes.com, May 4, 2007]
Laptop stations used for specific purposes in the classroom with teacher supervision are a good alternative. Students are actively engaged in a specific classroom project with the teacher present.
Prior Planning
Planning prior to issuing computers to students seems to be a key factor. Schools that trained teachers for one to two years before students received computers were more successful and rated the technology higher. Having a specific purpose for the computers (creative writing, research, book creation) works better than a general issuing of computers and hoping the best purpose will evolve.
The Future
Technology is here to stay. Students will need computer skills for college. Perhaps the schools abandoning laptops are not giving the project enough time.
Related articles: Future Look of Education, Education and Society Are Changing,
Read previous articles on Educational Issues.
Copyright article 2007 Barbara Pytel. All Rights Reserved.
