Laptops for Everyone

Texas is known as a place that does things differently--we still have a few people here who believe the state should be a separate country--and a recent proposal to replace public school textbooks with laptop computers is firmly in that tradition. But technology enthusiasts and critics around the country are watching this unlikely proposal closely.

The idea was launched with a nearly off-the-cuff remark by the chairman of the state Board of Education, Jack Christie. Christie says he thought of the idea several years ago but discovered that the cost was too high.

Now, with the state facing a bill of nearly $2 billion dollars for textbooks over the next six years, and with costs for laptop computers falling, Christie thinks the time for this innovation has come.

At first, Christie’s casual recommendation was considered somewhat loopy. But now the idea “has legs,” as they say, and has acquired some powerful support. Officials of the state education agency say that even though there’s not likely to be any action on the proposal until the next century, it’s an idea worth study and deliberation.

The proposal also has the qualified support of some educators, and of Bill Mitchell, chairman of the state’s Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund, a 10-year, $1.5-billion state program for networking all public schools in Texas.

On the face of it, there are several appealing reasons for replacing textbooks with laptops. One of the biggest problems of the digital era is social equity: How can we equalize access to the technology and the skills that are increasingly necessary for success in the “new economy”?

A state program to lease laptop computers for all 4 million public school students could make a major dent in that problem.

“Whether they’re in the poorest section of town or the wealthiest, they’re going to have an equal shot,” Christie has said. “All of a sudden everyone starts at the same starting line. I truly believe it’s going to occur within the next six years. Why not make the investment now?”

Many education specialists and others concerned about the employment pool for the high-tech industry also believe that promoting familiarity with computers, and developing innovative uses of the Internet, can go a long way toward improving students’ learning skills, ability to solve problems and ability to work collaboratively.

Christie complains that textbooks are too quickly outdated. He cites the example of a Texas textbook, in use until a year ago, that stopped its history lessons before the end of the Cold War. He thinks this can be solved by using CD-ROMs that are cheap to produce and update.

James Morrison, a professor of educational technology and a Microsoft Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, agrees. “The thing that I’m so impressed about with this technology is how quickly you can get to things,” he says.

Morrison is an advocate of what’s now called, in education circles, “constructivist” educational models, in which students “construct knowledge” rather than having it “dumped” into their heads by a teacher or a textbook.

He believes computers, the Internet and online communities facilitate constructivist education, the wave of the future. Others agree, saying the era of the “sage on the stage,” or a teacher in front of a rapt audience of students, is over.

But many social critics, such as writer Neil Postman, remain skeptical about the new emphasis on technology in schools, arguing that there is no evidence to support the claim that computers improve learning.

“Is there evidence that children learn better when a school has plenty of well-paid, under-burdened teachers?,” Postman asks. “The answer is yes. Why, then, are we proceeding with such a costly investment in technology? Is it possible that we haven’t given enough thought to the matter?”

Even people supportive of the role of computers in education have some problems with the Texas proposal. John Slatin, director of the Institute for Technology and Learning at the University of Texas at Austin, believes the laptop idea is “bold and innovative, but problematic.”

Slatin thinks we have a long way to go before computer software actually supports constructivist education principles. “There isn’t yet enough high-quality instructional material to warrant replacing textbooks with computers,” he says.

There are many dangers to the Texas idea. There’s the risk of disciplined learning being replaced by “edutainment,” or pseudo-educational material that emphasizes amusing interactivity instead of true learning. Slatin believes that many of the edutainment software products already on the market “don’t take the ‘edu’ part seriously enough.”

Many public officials and school administrators underestimate the costs and headaches of technical support. Christie has lauded the “kid-proof” durability of a prototype laptop, which he said could be dropped without damaging it.

But hardware durability is not the problem--what usually breaks in a computer is unreliable and maddeningly complicated software, especially bloated operating systems. Computers are often too hard to use. And the personnel required to maintain 4 million laptops would be increasingly expensive because of their high demand.

There is also the possibility that widespread replacement of textbooks by computers could devalue the importance of books in the minds of students. One can imagine a student of the future regarding books as archaic and somehow intrinsically inferior.

The debate underway may be a prelude to a larger dispute about educational policy in general. Christie’s remarks imply that he thinks education is mostly a matter of delivering facts and data and preparing for a job, while others believe that learning is a more subtle process combining curiosity, discipline, creativity, critical skepticism and, of course, access to information.

Texas is confronting the issue the rest of the world is also beginning to grapple with: Are we tools of our tools, or are we smart enough to be their masters?