Laptop Programs for Students

Abstract

With the continuing decline in costs of technology, programs are proliferating worldwide to put networked laptop computers into the hands of millions of students on a routine basis. The reasons policy-makers support these programs are based on economic arguments, equity concerns, and widespread interest in education reform. Studies of laptop programs in schools report that they increase students' engagement in school, improve technology skills, and have positive effects on students' writing. However, evidence of the effectiveness of large-scale laptop programs in other learning domains is scarce. Research in many nations suggests that laptop programs will be most successful as part of balanced, comprehensive initiatives that address changes in education goals, curricula, teacher training, and assessment.

ICT in Developing Countries: Policies, Implementation, and Impact

“…The impact of computers has been studied extensively for many decades in developed countries and an extensive literature amassed on the impact of ICT on teachers and students. The volume of this research has enabled reviews (European SchoolNet, 2006 ;Kozma, 2005 ;Zucker & Light, 2009 ) and meta-analyses that provide a comprehensive picture of the results of using ICT in schools (Means, Toyama, Murphy, Bakia, & Jones, 2009 ;Tamim, Bernard, Borokhovski, Abrami, & Schmidt, 2011 ) . However for a variety of reasons, there is still a paucity of research studies on the educational impact of ICT in developing countries (Tolani-Brown, McCormac, & Zimmermann, 2009 ) .…”

Variations of Symbolic Power and Control in the One-to-One Computing Classroom: Swedish Teachers’ Enacted Didactical Design Decisions

“…The digitalisation of schools increases each year through so-called one-to-one computing initiatives (Bocconi, Kampylis, & Punie, 2013;Zucker & Light, 2009). Sweden is not an exception, with one-toone initiatives in almost all municipalities (Becker & Taawo, 2016).…”

Science Teachers’ Response to the Digital Education Revolution

“…Frequent connectivity issues and the flexibility needed to shift gears if/when hardware or software problems emerge mean planning for implementation needs to allow for this dynamism. Despite the teachers' intentions to create integrated experiential-based learning opportunities for their students, which Zucker and colleagues (Zucker and Hug 2008;Zucker and Light 2009) have noted can engage students in complex thinking, problem-solving, reflection and production, connectivity issues may in part be responsible for the generally low levels of motivation and cognitive engagement that our case teachers reported among their students, as described next.…”

“…The school environment became even better resourced when Hewlett Packard supplied the school with $1million worth of computers and associated technology (Zucker and Hug 2007). Reports from this school demonstrate the wide potential of one-toone laptop programs for 21 st century learning, given appropriate conditions to support high-level, effective implementation (Zucker and Hug 2008;Zucker and King 2009;Zucker and Light 2009). …”