Laptop

While laptops may have started as a business tool, their role in education is only now being fully explored—both in Third World countries with limited access to formal education and Westernized education systems. They are being used to support overburdened school districts with limited teaching resources; enhance critical thinking and academic success; and strengthen student and parental participation in the learning process.

A recent study in the Journal of Technology, Learning, and Assessment found students in one-to-one computer settings like any public school outperformed peers in traditional classrooms. In a single year, 20 percent of public school students increased their reading skills by two grade levels. The number of students referred to any public school principal or other intervention specialists for disciplinary reasons has dropped from 500 to 100 in two years. Prior to a flu outbreak.

Public school is championing the notion that laptops have their greatest impact in the classroom by engaging students, teachers and parents in creative, new ways. “People assume that if students are using individual laptops they can’t be collaborating,”. “But if they are blogging, they use a LCD projector to show the blogs on the board so the students can comment on each other’s work. The students can e-mail their writing to a classmate for peer-to-peer editing in ten seconds.”

This dovetails with studies that indicate laptops shift instruction from lectures to individual and group projects. At public school, teachers use the technology to differentiate their instruction based on the special needs or learning levels of a student. A crucial aspect for public school is the inclusion of parents, many of whom have never touched a computer before. Hundreds of families have joined the Technology Goes Home program, where they are provided with training and a netbook to use at home.

“The parents take the computer home and the child becomes the teacher,”. “They sit together and it improves the relationship. It’s a win-win situation.” Parents now hop online and check their children’s homework assignments and grades.

In a study recently published in Computers in Education Journal, 78 percent of students agreed the laptops made them more engaged and about half said they were more attentive as a result of the technology. About seven in 10 students said the laptops had a positive effect on their learning.

During class, students can view slides on their laptops and take notes directly on the slides. Using a chat window, the students can anonymously ask the teacher’s aide questions during the lecture. Professor /Teachers can see the questions, too, providing him with valuable insight into the student’s comprehension of his lecture without disrupting the flow of the class. Students can also rate their understanding of the slides, giving him more immediate feedback.

During class, students can use their laptops to answer multiple-choice questions and image-based questions, such as locating weather patterns on a map. 

The students will use laptops for too much play and not enough work.