Learning with Laptops

ARTICLE SUMMARY: Learning with laptops explored the impact of one-to-one computing to student attitudes in regards to learning and school. It compared two groups of students in different grades, one group with personal laptops and one without to see if their feeling toward education and school was different. The study also evaluated performance based on standardized test scores to see if there were academic differences between the two groups. The study found that the use of technology had little impact on the younger students and a more significant impact on the older students with regard to their attitudes toward school and learning. There were several variables that could contribute to this finding, the largest being standardized testing.

What I learned: What I felt after reading this article was sadness. I know the article was there to inform others of the positive impacts technology can have in education but what I thought after reading it was, standardized testing is impacting our students in negative ways. Even providing our students with personal laptops, motivated and educated teachers is not enough to make school a fun place to be and learn. The stress the students are under takes away from the fun of learning. Students begin their educational careers with positive attitudes, loving their teachers, class and school and the older they get the less enjoyment they have in school. It made me sad.

Was this valuable? Not really. There wasn't anything I could take from this article and apply in my career.

Discussion critique: The discussions all agreed that the laptop experiment was successful. Everyone seemed to agree that this was not a suprise and that all students could benefit from having a personal laptop.

Suggestions on how the discussions could be improved:There wasn't much to discuss about this article.