At the forefront of this trend is the Beaufort County, S.C., school system, which launched an ambitious laptop program three years ago by providing portable computers to 300 sixth graders. Today, almost half of the district's 4,000 middle-schoolers are using a personal laptop. The initiative was inspired by the obvious mobility of a laptop computer, says district spokesperson John C. Williams. If students are to incorporate technology into their everyday learning, he says, it was reasoned that students needed to have a computer that could be carried from home to school and from classroom to classroom. What's more, this ready access to technology was expected to boost student interest in learning.
Research shows that nothing attracts students like technology.
After three years, county officials are seeing evidence that their experiment is succeeding. Rockman warns against drawing simplistic conclusions from such successes. His research reveals that laptops do not improve the education process on their own. Only by constant use and experimentation at home and school, he says, do the dynamics of the classroom and computer use change significantly. Yet providing widespread access to laptops is proving a significant obstacle for school officials.