The best thing they can do is step out of the way and let the students work. Texas thinks even bigger While no school district in the country has yet purchased laptops for all its students, Texans are debating an even further-reaching plan. Last fall Jack Christie, chairman of the Texas Board of Education, proposed buying laptops for all 3.8 million public-school students in the state. That plan is stalled in the state Legislature. I.S. 218's Business Studies Academy, the part of the school that uses the laptops in four classes, has lent some students games that simulate commerce.
Some kids think it's boring to read.
With laptops they're going to be much more into homework. Laptops, he says, are a more dangerous classroom fad than movies in the 1920s, radio in the '30s, and TV in the '70s. Mr. Stoll asks. They're learning that every question has a right answer. They're learning that it's unnecessary to read and think when multimedia systems deliver dancing graphics right in front of their eyes.