"Students learn better by doing, and the laptop computers allows all students to “do” while the teacher monitors."

Top 10 Tools for Learning (if you're interested)

Examples by Course

A statistics professor uses NetMeeting to allow students with laptops to take control of, and work with software running on, the professor‘s computer. For example, a student can take control of spreadsheet and demonstrate to the rest of the class how to compute the standard deviation of a column of numbers. With the professor‘s permission, control can be passed from one student to
another providing a means for graded —recitation." Although only one computer is in control at any time, all students linked to the NetMeeting can view the spreadsheet activity on their own laptops. Students not linked can view the image projected from the professor‘s laptop onto the
screen. [7]

A math professor walks the students step-by-step through an online worksheet that leads the student through the solution process of a math problem. Graphical representations
of the intermediate and final functions facilitate student understanding. [11]

A math professor uses MAPLE [20], a mathematical, software package where students can visualize their work in a Calculus III course. He believes that software run on student laptops permits him to teach topics which involve, for example, 3D visualization, which could not otherwise be taught or modeled. The interactive software allows the students to manipulate the models under the direction of the professor in the classroom. [11]

A chemistry professor uses QuickTime movies to demonstrate potentially hazardous chemical experiments. He uses an interactive software package that accompanies the textbook and provides students with immediate access to information on every element in the periodic table. The software also has molecular modeling program. [4]

A chemistry professor gives his students the following problem: —You need some ____ for a chemical reaction and are trying to figure a way to make it. Does it look like any of these routes work?“ and he offers four suggestions on how to develop the required compound. He allows the
students to work with an interactive software package in a group for about 15 minutes. Then each student has till the end of the class to write a paragraph about what their group did. Student reports are graded 1 or 0, representing —engaged“ or —not engaged.“ [4]

A history professor asks his students to research a topic on the Web and to develop a website to teach other students. His experience is that, without guidance, students tend to visit a superficial encyclopedia and prepare a site with insipid content. He has found that spending time to prepare
a reference website with carefully selected links, and then restricting the students only to the links listed, enables the students to develop better website reports. [2]

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is animation worth? It is worth quite a bit more, according to one professor who regularly uses applets as a visual, interactive supplement to the lecture. [16, 19] For example, a site by Gogeshvili [5] makes available BTApplet.class, an
excellent applet-based animation of binary search trees, AVL, splay, and red-black trees. Spending the first half of a class period with a traditional lecture on any of these topics (with laptops closed), followed by fifteen minutes of a structured laptop exercise using the applet, can deliver the concepts quite effectively.

A computer science professor gives team Java programming assignments requiring development of two to four classes. Each student is required to develop one of the classes. The team is allowed to discuss design and implementation issues, but each student must write and test his or her class individually. Java servlet software developed specifically for this type of assignment allows web-based submission of each student‘s code. When all team members have submitted their classes, the code is automatically compiled and run against the professor‘s
test-driver. The results, including any compiler or runtime errors, are immediately viewable on the web. Students are allowed to discuss and correct errors, and resubmit code. Students are graded partly on the success of the team and partly on the performance of their individual classes executing with the professor‘s code.

A computer science professor is developing new software tools to facilitate evaluation of assignments, specifically programming assignments. [17] The tool enables a student to develop a program and submit it through the Web. The program is compiled and tested by a driver developed by the professor. The results are returned to the student, also through the Web. The results can be text output produced by the student program, or can be a graph plotting the
execution times of the student program with different inputs. The professor can display results produced by several students side by side and compare their output. The ability to get early evaluation of assignments rewards the more diligent students

From: Laptops in the Classroom by Andrea Campbell

"Keep our kids safe and make them smart"

According to a report recently released by the National School Boards Foundation, the majority of parents see the Internet as a powerful tool for education anda positive force in their children's lives. According to Peter Grunwald, whose firm researched and produced the report, those findings present educators with both an opportunity and a challenge.

Educators need to devote at least as much energy to making kids smart as they do to keeping them safe -- by providing them and their families with greater access to online educational content and more opportunities to communicate and collaborate.

School's could make better use of technology by:

• taking a balanced, rather than rigid, approach to developing acceptable use policies.
• paying as much attention to highlighting good internet content as to restricting bad content.
• fostering media literacy by encouraging Internet use in preschool and elementary grades and by developing a plan to educate children about safe Internet use.
• providing teachers with increased opportunities for professional development and training in the use of technology.
• promoting online learning by providing parents with suggestions for websites and activities they can explore with their children.
• using the Internet to communicate more effectively with parents and students by creating active and interactive school or district websites.
• engaging the community by offering Internet training as well as community access to online computers.

The survey revealed that:

• 76 percent of low-income families say their children depend on schools for Internet access.
• 43 percent of 9 to 17 year olds with Internet access at school say the Internet has improved their attitude toward school.
• 64 percent of parents would like to be able to use the Internet to communicate with their children's teachers.
• 56 percent of parents would like to be able to view their children's schoolwork online.

"The results of the survey present educator's with both opportunities and challenges," Grunwald said. "The opportunities exist because parents think that schools are doing a good job using the Internet with their children. That confidence allows educators to use the Internet in creative and progressive ways.

"The challenges exist for the same reasons," Grunwald added. "Because kids are online at home, parents have heightened expectations for their use of the Internet in school. Parents expect that schools will use the Internet in well-thought-out, educationally valuable ways. If schools fail to live up to those expectations, problems [could arise] in the future," Grunwald said.

How Can Schools Make Better Use of the Internet? by Linda Starr