Now, more than 60,000 students in 500 schools nationwide are using laptops with Microsoft software. Microsoft also gives educators a free on-line handbook to aid them in starting laptop curriculums. The manual includes instructions on everything from financing to organizing parent coffees and handling local news media. Microsoft also provides research data showing that the laptop program is a success. You see dramatic differences in teaching and learning quite quickly.
Kids become better independent learners.
It changes what it's like to be in a classroom. Educators who have seen the laptop program work in their schools hail it as revolutionary. But even its earliest supporters cautioned districts to plan carefully before signing up. About 800 students in Snohomish have laptops that their parents lease from the school district, which purchased the machines from Toshiba. Of 8,700 children in the Snohomish district, many students in grades five through eight have laptops.