Laptops in Schools
Conditions for Classroom Innovation
Y. Zhao, K. Pugh, S. Sheldon and J. L. Byers
This article reports on a study of the complex and messy process of classroom technology integration. The main purpose of the study was to empirically address the large question of "why don't teachers innovate when they are given computers?" rather than whether computers can imporve student learning.The study found 11 salient factors that significantly impact the degree of success of classroom technology innovations.
Laptops and Literacy: Learning in the Wireless Classroom
Mark Warschauer
Warschauer, an Associate Professor at the University of California, Irvine undertakes a study of 1-to-1 in terms of literacy for today's students. Using schools in California and Maine, he applies a qualitative framework for his research into bringing literacy to the current day. Specifically, he seeks to understand the role 1-to-1 can play in providing current, up-to-date literacy for students around computer literacy, information literacy, multimedia literacy, and computer-mediated communication literacy.
Laptops Change Curriculum -- and Students
Sharon Cromwell
At one Bloomfield, Connecticut, middle school, all the students have laptops, and life is going smoothly, thanks in part due to a large dose of teacher preparation. Besides requiring special training, life with laptops also comes with special problems.
Laptops for All
Roberta Furger
This article from Edutopia illustrates some curriculum activities undertaken by the students at Mott Hall and provides some video footage of the class in action.
Laptops for Learning
Florida Laptops for Learning Task Force
The "Laptops for Learning" Task Force produced a report that addresses the following issues: Studying national and state laptop initiatives to identify best practices as measured by student achievement or other measures of success; conducting a cost/benefit analysis of mobile technology as defined by anytime, anywhere authentic learning; and examining the equity of educational opportunities to ensure that students will have 21st century learning skills.
No Strings Attached
Amy Joyner
2003: "I always wondered what kind of difference it would make when the students had one-to-one computer access," Reynolds says. She no longer has to wonder how a laptop in every backpack can change a school. Reynolds just began her third year at Crooms Academy for Information Technology in Sanford, Fla. The three-year-old magnet high school, part of the Seminole County Public Schools, has a curriculum that focuses on technology.
Starting School Laptop Programs: Lessons Learned
Andrew Zucker
Nov 2005: The Ubiquitous Computing Consortium published this Policy Brief in November 2005. This review of lessons learned about laptop programs shows that they fall into five key areas. Policymakers should pay careful attention to planning, training and professional development, hardware and software, managing change, and program monitoring and evaluation. Addressing these issues from the outset will help schools achieve the laptop program's goals while minimizing unexpected problems.
The Art of the Start
Guy Kawasaki
Whilst this book is primarily intended as a guide for starting a new business, very many of the strategies Kawasaksi recommends apply equally well to getting a laptop initiative started. If you believe that a one-to-one program is like a startup then the ideas presented will resonate for you.
Transforming Schools with Technology
Andrew A. Zucker
This book provides readers with dozens of illustrations of constructive ways that schools are using computers, the Internet, and related digital tools. Zucker's book uses a framework of six educational goals as a way to better understand how schools use technology to meet the multiple aims policymakers have established for them. One of the important consequences of using these goals as a framework is to clarify thinking and conversations about the important roles technology is playing in schools.
