www.ciconline.org

hether it’s called a laptop program, one-to-one computing, ubiquitous comput-ing, or 24/7 access, schools and schooldistricts around the country are explor-

ing the benefits and challenges of what happens whenevery student has a laptop computer. As with every ef-fort to change schools, there are variations in how lap-top programs are designed, funded, and implemented,but the basic structure of a laptop program is that eachstudent in a classroom, a grade level, or an entire schoolhas a computer to use at school, and often, to takehome, too.

Our research group has been studying ubiquitouscomputing programs for the past 10 years. In that time,we have learned a great deal about what happens toteachers, to students, and to parents and communitymembers when the power of one-to-one computing ismade available. Our findings, and those of other re-searchers in this area, are reliable, and the conclusionsare clear. We consistently find substantive impacts onteaching and learning, on teachers and students, yet wecontinue to have difficulty tying full-time access to com-puters to the outcomes of standardized tests currently inuse. Our belief is that, while computers are powerful in-terventions for both students and teachers, what they dowith them is not what is tested.

Providing computer access for every child has been triedin various forms for about 15 years. Indiana’s BuddyProject and Apple Computer’s ACOT program are twopioneer efforts in which every student was provided witha computer at home. The impetus for today’s laptopprograms started seven years ago when Toshiba and Mi-crosoft introduced the Anytime, Anywhere Learningprogram, begun a few years earlier in Australia. The ini-tiative grew quickly, capturing the imagination of bothindependent and public schools. For some, it was an ex-pansion of the school’s existing technology program;for others, it was a dramatic way of introducing tech-nology to the school, leaping into an area that earlier hadbeen minimally supported. With the falling prices oflaptops, more and more schools and school districts areconsidering initiating ubiquitous laptop programs.

Large-scale, dramatic efforts, such as those in Maineor in Henrico County, Va., have placed laptops in thehands of tens of thousands of students. Other smaller lap-top projects may engage only a single classroom or allthe classrooms in a single grade. Many of these initiativeswill expand their program from year to year, adding agrade level each year. For example, a school may start alaptop program with the lowest grade in a building—theseventh grade in a secondary school or the ninth gradein a high school—and each year’s entering class will be

24 • Fall 2003 • Threshold

W

> Saul RockmanPresidentROCKMAN ET AL

Learning fromLaptops

With ubiquitous computing trials starting up everyyear, what have we learned about how laptops

affect what—and how—students learn?

outfitted with a laptop. Growing the program from year toyear provides time for teacher training and the developmentand evolution of support and maintenance services.

Another recent strategy has been to acquire classroom setsof laptops, stored on a recharging cart, so that any classroomin a school can have an experience with ubiquitous com-puting. Most times these class sets serve as a portable lab,rather than offeringcontinuing access athome and in school.As schools monitorthe program overtime, many see thebenefit of permittingstudents to take thecomputers home atthe end of eachschool day and keep-ing the computerswith a group of stu-dents for severalweeks at a time, sothey can benefit fromfull-time access.

My best guessti-mate is that one infive school districts iscurrently trying a laptop program inone or more of itsschools. The com-puter vendors like it,as do many of the community advocates who see that tech-nology has an important role to play in teaching and learn-ing, as well as helping to reduce the digital divide. It’s oneof the most compelling school-change interventions wehave seen in decades, but it isn’t about laptops—it’s aboutwhat students do when they have full-time access to pow-erful tools, the same tools found in offices and on the desksof professionals in all fields. These tools are the same onesneeded to accomplish the work of school: tools for writing,conducting research, simulating problems, manipulating for-mulae, making presentations, and organizing information.

What Have We Proved?There are numerous reasons that schools and school dis-tricts elect to initiate a laptop program; frequently, sev-eral rationales are combined to win the endorsement ofschool boards and parents. Whether the program is shownto be successful in the end depends in large part on whichrationale was the driving force behind it. While researchfrom the most recent laptop trials is too preliminary todraw definitive conclusions, there is enough consistencyin their findings to help guide the expectations of otherlaptop programs.

Given the substantial investment required to initiate alaptop program, many districts that adopt one expect thatfull-time access to technology will improve student

academic performance, that standardized test scores willrise. As policymakers and community members increas-ingly focus on rigorous assessment and adequate yearlyprogress to drive instructional decisions, support for ubiq-uitous laptops may be tied to these scores.

The answer to whether giving every student a laptop willenhance student achievement on tests is—and always has

been—a strong “itdepends.” Thoseadministrators andboard memberswho insist on aspecific test scoregain as the returnon investment are,more likely thannot, going to bedisappointed. Au-thentic assessmentsmay be a more re-alistic strategy formeasuring thevalue that laptopsbring to the class-room, but the costand difficulty ofthis approach totesting militatesagainst its use.

Ubiquitous lap-tops may not bethe direct tools for

teaching and learning what is on the tests, but they are as-sociated with learning strategies that show up on tests. Com-puters don’t provide content, they offer the tools to access,manipulate, and organize content. This supports one of theother arguments for funding laptop initiatives: that studentswill be developing 21st-century skills as they apply technol-ogy to problem-solving, communications, self-management,and thinking.How students use technology—for writing,on-line research, organizing information—appears more closelytied to these 21st-century skills than to standardized tests.

Unfortunately, in most districts and states, students whohave mastered composing and editing on the computer arerequired to take the writing portion of their high-stakes testsby hand rather than with their electronic tool. As studentslearn to take advantage of computers for writing, theirwriting strategies change—revisions in real time becomeeasier and accepted as a normal part of the process. Whenwriting by hand, revisions are laborious. Consequently, lessrevising is done and the writing quality on their assessmentssuffers. Enabling students to use the same technology toolson their standardized assessments that they use for theireveryday work will more closely match the assessmentswith the 21st-century skills students are learning.

For some school systems, laptops that stay with the childin school and at home are a means of closing the digital di-vide—now all students can have access to a computer and

Threshold • Fall 2003 • 25www.ciconline.org Photography by Getty Images

the Internet. Lack of a computer at home is associated withless parental education and lower family income, with sin-gle parent homes, and with Hispanic and African Amer-ican families. Even when children in these families haveaccess to home computers, the technology is often olderand has less functionality and power than children’s homecomputers in wealthier, better educated, and white house-holds. Because parents can learn along with their childrenin laptop programs, these efforts may also promote eco-nomic growth, helping parents master technology and ob-tain better jobs while helping communities move fromthe rust belt to the information economy.

Still another reason some districts desire to initiate alaptop program is to shake up the system, putting intoplace a large intervention that will motivate studentsand cause teachers to think differently about teaching andlearning. But for all of these changes to result in improved

teaching and learning, teachers, students,administrators, and even parents and com-munity members must adjust to theirchanging roles in the learning process.

Teachers and their TeachingThe introduction of laptops for all stu-dents is a considerable change in the av-erage classroom, especially for the teacher.While there may be three or four com-puters in the back of the room, an openlaptop on each desk is a dramatic shiftfrom what a teacher normally sees.And formost, the first time is a little frightening.Just what do you say and do when everyone of your students has a computer infront of him or her? Will they use it inap-propriately? How do you change your les-sons to take advantage of the opportunitiesthat computers and Internet access offer?

Very quickly, an observer in a laptopclassroom would see that there is less lec-turing and more individual and groupproject work. Teachers discover that they

don’t have to provide all the information, that studentscan gather much of what is needed from the Internet.When teachers acknowledge that their students have thetools to do a lot of the work of school (of both teachingand learning), they adopt a strategy that lets students workon their own more, or work in small groups to under-take projects in line with curriculum standards. Stu-dents can do more work on their own and at their ownpace, and the teachers can act more as consultants to them,offering individualized suggestions, mid-course correc-tions, and more frequent assessments of individual andgroup progress. Teachers are making use, or makinggreater use, of authentic assessments to evaluate the con-tent and design of technology-rich products developedby their students.

Teachers also begin to see a shift in their role as in-structional leader and master of all knowledge. First,

they certainly learn more about technology from theirstudents (who are much more willing to put in the seattime to master a piece of software). Many studentsthrive in an environment where they have skills andknowledge to share and to trade. Trading with a teacherprovides them with a sense of pride and empower-ment. The shift to students-as-teachers goes beyondtrading information. As students make presentationsabout their projects, both the other students and theteacher are the audience for information and ideas thatmay be new to the entire group, since the range of in-formation sources is dramatically widened through theInternet. Teachers also need to be wary consumers,since students no longer copy from the encyclopedia,they cut and paste from a variety of Web sites.

Laptop programs also influence teachers by increasingtheir collaboration with other teachers in their building.Some of this collaboration is sharing information aboutthe technology and finding solutions to technical prob-lems; a great deal more is sharing ideas about how tomanage a room full of young people equipped with com-puters.This classroom management problem is exacerbatedby the recent adoption of wireless technology, providinghigh-speed access to the Internet all the time.Teachers needto quickly learn how to maintain the attention of stu-dents who have open laptops, how to deal with dead bat-teries and damaged screens, and how to help studentslearn about what is appropriate to do in school, rather thanin the privacy of their home. Students looking at the Websites of singers,movie and TV stars, sports teams,and cloth-ing manufacturers are more likely to be the problem thanstudents accessing sites on pornography and weapons.Games might be even a bigger problem.

Teachers in laptop schools evolve and share classroommanagement strategies that work for them. As in mostclassrooms where projects are common, there will alwaysbe some noise and movement as students collaborate.However, when students are seated in spreadsheet fash-ion (rows and columns), teachers worry when they can’tsee what is on computer screens. Some teachers take towandering around the classroom, which keeps studentson task (and in line), and yields a secondary benefit inbeing more available to work with a student having trou-ble with an assignment as they pass the student’s desk.If students are working on individual tasks, those whofinish early might have a list of Web-based problems totackle or be assigned a personal journal to write on thesubject being studied. Other teachers turn to online ed-ucational games to provide practice in skills. And teach-ers can always ask that the computers be closed (and somereading materials brought out).

Students and their LearningFor students, the changes are also substantial. Whilemost have a computer at home (more than 70 percentdo), having access all day in school is both a novelty anda challenge. How do students accomplish their workwhen they have a computer all the time? Is it just for school

26 • Fall 2003 • Threshold www.ciconline.org

Blindassessment of

promptedwriting

found thatlaptop

studentsoutscored

their non-laptop

counterpartssignificantly.

or, since they carry it home, is it for all the things stu-dents want to do with a computer? School administra-tors and family members worry— will they lose it, willit get stolen?

In a laptop classroom, there is much more independ-ent learning since students now have access to powerfultools for accomplishing it. As independent learners, theyalso have to take onmore responsibility fortheir learning. Studentsworking independentlyhave to monitor theirown progress, identifythe tools and resourcesthey need to use, andknow when to seekhelp. Not all studentsdo equally well in thiscontext, but many willsurprise their teacherswith their improvedperformance. Becausethere is much moreproject-based teaching,students are also morelikely to collaborate,working with one an-other to accomplish a common goal. With project-basedteaching comes presentations, so students are masteringpresentation software and are getting regular practice instanding before their peers and teachers to inform andenlighten them.

Developing the ability to learn independently, col-laborate with peers to accomplish work, and commu-nicate the conclusions of your work are the core of21st-century skills, and a highly valued set of compe-tencies in the world outside of school. These accom-plishments are seen in many laptop programs, especiallythose that permit students to take their computer homein the evening. Full-time access seems to encourage responsible ownership of the tools to do the work thatstudents have, and students are likely to differentiate be-tween using the computer for schoolwork and using itfor non-school activities. Our research has shown thatstudents will use their home computers for games andinstant messaging, while saving their school comput-ers for only the schoolwork.

One core academic area that is clearly influenced byaccess to ubiquitous computing is writing. Studentsare asked to write in almost all their classes and com-puters afford easier editing and rewriting, motivatingstudents to edit more and write more. One of our stud-ies showed that students in laptop classrooms wrotemore than those in non-laptop classrooms and thattheir writing was qualitatively better. Blind assessmentof prompted writing, using a rubric covering content,organization, language/voice/style, and mechanics,found that laptop students outscored their non-laptop

counterparts significantly on all four dimensions.Laptop students also seem to be better learners.

Among the things they tend to do more (in compari-son to students who don’t have laptop access) are tak-ing notes while they read, underlining or highlightinga main idea, writing together with other students,re-reading papers before turning them in, and using in-

formation from a va-riety of sources. Theseactivities appear to beassociated with betterlearning and, onewould hope, wouldshow up on tests of ac-ademic performanceeventually.

Individual studentsalso benefit by servingas formal and infor-mal tutors of bothpeers and teachers. Inmany cases, studentsin laptop programsalso serve as teachersof their parents andsiblings at home. Full-time computer access

provides them the opportunity to become experts in arange of software applications and this mastery, whenshared with others, enhances self-esteem and the senseof personal accomplishment. For disadvantaged stu-dents, this benefit is a powerful incentive to be part of acontinuing program, to participate in school, and tomaintain good grades.

Changes for Parents and CommunityThere is often an enrollment surge in schools that an-nounce a laptop initiative, suggesting that parents seethe value of their children having access to technology.Laptop schools regularly report greater parental in-volvement (at least for the first few years). They seehigher attendance at PTA meetings; increased communication via e-mail, phone, or face-to-face meetings; parent participation in tutoring programsand parent-student computer classes offered throughthe school; and more volunteering at the schools.

In some of the programs we’ve examined, parents andcommunity members became increasingly involved in theteaching and learning process. They influenced the cur-riculum by taking an active role in daily classroom ac-tivities as well as acting as resources for project-basedlearning activities. Parents and community membersalso developed their digital-literacy skills. Parents, ex-tended family, and community members (especially sen-iors) benefited from the opportunity to interact withlaptop computers and the Internet at home as well as par-ticipated in school-sponsored workshops on specificsoftware programs.

Threshold • Fall 2003 • 27www.ciconline.org

28 • Fall 2003 • Threshold www.ciconline.org

At the End of the Day…After his school’s laptop program had been in place fora year or two, one headmaster was asked to explain thesubstantial increase in student test scores. The curricu-lum hadn’t changed, the teachers were the same, and theonly difference was the introduction of laptops for all stu-dents.“The computers did make a difference,”he told me.“We promoted ourselves as a laptop school and enrolleda better group of students.”

Obviously, this kind of improvement is not the changewe seek when introducing laptops to a school. But lap-top programs are an invitation to change—change whatteachers do and how they do it; change what students doand how they do it. The effects of laptop programs ap-pear to be the greatest on those 21st-century skills thatmake a difference over time and are the necessary prepa-ration for productive work in school and beyond.

Surprisingly, the current press for improved test scoreshasn’t lessened the enthusiasm for ubiquitous comput-ing. Whether it is seen as cutting edge or just necessaryin today’s world, ubiquitous computing has an appeal thatwill sustain its presence in many schools. <

ResourcesKeefe, Dave and Andy Zucker. “Ubiquitous ComputingProjects: A Brief History.” SRI International, 2003.ubiqcomputing.org

Maine Learns. The Maine Learning Technology Initiative.www.mainelearns.orgThis Web site for and by educators offers resources forteaching with laptops.

ROCKMAN ET AL. Web site.www.rockman.com Evaluation information on the evolution, use, and impactof laptop programs, including the following reports,which are also available directly from Microsoft.———. “Report of a Laptop Program Pilot,” June 1997.www.microsoft.com/education/download/aal/resrch_1.rtf———. “Powerful Tools for Schooling: Second Year Studyof the Laptop Program,” 1998.www.microsoft.com/education/download/aal/research2.rtf———. “A More Complex Picture: Laptop Use and Im-pact in the Context of Changing Home and School Ac-cess,” 1999.www.microsoft.com/education/download/aal/research3report.doc

State of Maine. Maine Learning Technology Initiative.www.state.me.us/mlteIncludes downloadable Task Force report evaluating thefirst year of Maine’s statewide laptop program.

Learning from Laptopscontinued from page 27