Ten years later, each seventh- and eighth-grader in Maine public schools and every grades 7-12 teacher has a laptop paid for by state taxpayers, at an annual cost of $11 million
And, through the Maine Department of Education, 60 percent of Maine high-schoolers have laptops, paid for by local property taxpayers. That's a total of 72,000 laptops, according to the DOE
...but do students get to take the laptops home? What is their acceptable use policy? What user agreement do they use?
Writing test scores have improved
schoolwork more interesting
A 2009 study by David Silvernail of the Maine Education Policy Research Institute at the University of Southern Maine showed that laptops helped students become better writers, boosting writing test scores statewide
math skills have jumped
Educators credit the method of teaching math in middle school: laptops, no textbooks.
In 2001-02, Freeport Middle School's eighth grade passing rate on basic math tests was about 50 percent. In 2009-10, it was 91 percent, math teacher Alex Briasco-Brin said
Used this in class. It's fun, the kids like it, and it's easy.
They'd throw their wallet at the problem. Those kids came in with professional-looking documents,” Robinson said, compared to plain-looking reports from students whose parents did not have as much money.
Having laptops means all students can do the same quality report, regardless of their parents' income, “because they all have the same tools,” Robinson said.
This sort of echoes the helicopter parent problem mentioned at the in-service, when parents alleviate stress by either doing the kids' project, or offsetting problems with dollars. It comes down to an issue of educational equity.
“I got used to knowing when to go on Skype: after my homework is done; when to go on Facebook: after my homework is done. As I got better, my grades started to go back up,” Trevor said.
At FETC, Verizon Wireless claimed to be able to block sites through the coverage they provide. That was specifically for cellular handhelds in class. Does the same hold for wireless access? Could it?
Learning happens best when you make mistakes
“Part of it is supervision, he said. You don't hand the keys to your car to your teenager without rules.
In Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff", the Mercury astronauts mentioned what it was that launched those rockets. It was funding. "No bucks, no Buck Rogers." It's the same everywhere.
'I want this device to be an extension of their arm, a routine way to learn,'”
With our ability to insulate ourselves through choosing only certain information to surround us, it reinforces the need for teachers in guiding students to more fully critique information, it's source, and bias. I disagree with it in a sense. "This transformation" CAN - not necessarily will - force us to rethink; but it can just as easily lead us to create whatever truth we have already written for ourselves by surrounding ourselves with cherry-picked information that supports our conclusions.
"Bookmarklet apps like Instapaper, Svpply, and Readability are pointing us toward a future in which content is no longer entrenched in websites, but floats in orbit around users. This transformation of our relationship with content will force us to rethink existing reputation, distribution, and monetization models—and all for the better."
— Orbital Content by Cameron Koczoon