An article in the Wall Street Journal last week created a bit of a fuss in the educational blogosphere. The article reported on some backlash against laptops in schools, specifically programs that put one laptop in the hands of each student. Students are, and you'll find this hard to believe, playing around and doing non-academic things with these laptops. Imagine.
The problem as I see it is two fold. One is that there are programs that have not been well thought out. The other is that sometimes parents, the news media and other detractors of these programs focus on the nits and miss the big things that are good that are happening.
Tossing a computer into a kids backpack does not automatically make them a scholar. I don't think anyone who has looked at these programs seriously believes that. Unfortunately there are all to many people, especially in politics, who are looking for that silver bullet that will somehow magically make students better without anyone having to do more work. Over 20 years ago I saw parent groups struggle to raise money to put Apple IIs into classrooms. Back then those systems ran about $2500 a piece plus printer. Oh but it would be worth it. Generally it wasn't. Computers sat idle or students used them for "drill and kill" exercises. The problem was there was no good software and there was not training and curriculum training for the teachers to get the most value from the hardware. Today computers cost less and there is more software. Unless that is put together with teacher training and curriculum planning it doesn't do any good.
Vicki A Davis, an outstanding blogging teacher, points out in her blog that an aimless classroom is a failing classroom. Laptop programs can work. There is documentation and research to show how they are working. But the one laptop per child ideal is not as dependent on the hardware as it is on the software and the curriculum and of course the teachers who support it.