by Heinz Sladek

Created on: August 01, 2008   Last Updated: November 24, 2009

Children are growing up in a "plugged in" and "wired" society. So, it stands to reason that classrooms must keep up with the times by providing the technology that is necessary for these students to be able to function in society. Most of today's employment opportunities involve knowledge of technology and students must be ready to be a functioning part of this society.

Laptops are turning up in classrooms around the country, from preschool all the way through college. When one enters a college classroom, what is often found is an instructor lecturing at the front of the room and students, with laptops on, typing notes feverishly into their computers. Notes are not being written as much into paper notebooks, and students are carrying portable disk drives around their necks, able to back up their data, and have access to electronic files no matter where they may be.

In high schools, this practice is also becoming more common. Students are carrying laptops to class. Additionally, more schools are opting to purchase laptop computers rather than investing in desktop computers in computer labs. First of all, with laptops being portable, the computers are able to travel to the students rather than the students traveling to them. Teachers are able to take students anywhere on campus and to actively encourage the use of technology beyond the classroom walls.

This also holds true for middle and elementary schools. In schools where space is limited, portable computer labs make the most sense. Students are able to take the computers anywhere within the school to use the technology, including outdoors. Additionally, teachers are able to set up mini computer centers in their classrooms to support the taught curriculum in the classroom setting.

Laptop computers are not a distraction as long as they are utilized correctly and teachers realize that they can be used as an enhancement to the learning environment. Laptop computers should not be used as a toy. Rather, they should be used to support the curriculum being delivered in the classroom.

Recently, I was in a third grade classroom during mathematics instructional time. The teacher was sitting at a semi-circular table, working with five students who were actively involved in a hands-on learning activity involving elapsed time. Another group of students was sitting on the floor at the front of the room, playing a self-directed game involving time, while another group worked at their desks on an independent practice activity on time. The final five students were seated with five separate laptop computers. They were logged in to a web site where they were working on an education interactive activity, which to them they called a game, but in reality they were practicing using elapsed time. The teacher would later be able to pull a report from the web site to see the progress each student was making. In this classroom situation, she used the laptops to support what was being taught in the classroom. In this case, she had various centers set up that students would rotate through in order to reinforce what she had been teaching.

Laptops are an enhancement to education and should be seen as just this. In the college environment, they have enhanced the way students take notes, write papers, and do research. This is the same in high school, middle school and elementary school, along with providing additional interactive tools for students to practice new materials learned. Students must be able to use technology in order to function in society and one day to be successful in the workplace. Laptops are just one supporting tool in a long list of technological support for education.

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