The School Principal Blog

Some schools are attempting to get laptops assigned to every student to help students prepare for a world where computer literacy is becoming an increasingly important ingredient for success. With netbooks costing as low as $250, it seems like a no brainer to equip every child with a portable PC. But then there is the question of whether computer literacy is more important than book literacy. Reading is still an essential part of learning and a lot can be learned from reading books. If you think reading is more important, then you might advocate that every student get assigned a kindle e-book reader.

Here’s a quote from a Scholastic article

Kindles stocked with well-chosen e-books would also allow teachers to flex new teaching strategies, according to Cornelia Brunner, the deputy director at the Center for Children and Technology in New York City. “You could have a very nicely selected group of readings. . . . Kids could read, annotate, and actually clip and be asked to make connections among those clippings,” says Brunner.

Other possible benefits include providing students with more books electronically than is practical in print, reducing photocopying, relieving the unhealthy weight of student backpacks, and—though this case is far from proven—saving school districts money on textbooks.

An education think-tank led be former Clinton advisor Thomas Z. Freedman, even proposed giving a Kindle to every student in the country in a paper titled A Kindle in Every Backpack. According to the paper:

We shouldn’t wait a decade or two to begin to achieve what is inevitable — an education system where each American schoolchild has an eTextbook, like Amazon’s Kindle, loaded with the most up-to-date and interactive teaching materials and texts available,” the paper argues. “The ‘Kindle in every backpack’ concept isn’t just an educational gimmick—it could improve education quality and save money.

One solution may be to use an ebook reader application on the laptops so students can have the best of both technologies.

Do you think it would be more effective for students to have laptops or ebook readers?

Photo by Yutaka Tsutano

One of the hottest trends in computing right now is the growth in netbooks, small yet powerful laptops that are very inexpensive. You can find a new Acer netbook with 1 GB ram memory and a 160 GB hard drive for just $300 at Costco. That’s about $100 less than the least expensive laptop currently on the market. You can find netbooks online for even less, as low as $238 for a netbook with less memory.

What this does it makes information technology more accessible and makes giving every child a laptop more likely. Even with huge budget shortfalls that have resulted from the financial meltdown and recession, providing students with technology has never been more of a necessity. Ensuring that children are not only computer literate, but have access to tools that will improve their learning, is essential in preparing students to becoming productive and happy members of society in the information age. At this price, I believe there is no reason that every student in your district shouldn’t be issued a laptop as early as possible. School districts could negotiate lower prices by buying netbooks in bulk to save money. The cost of the netbooks could also be made up for by buying digital copies of books and textbooks which would cost much less.

Some schools are planning to issue every student a laptop, but I don’t think enough schools are being this proactive. How much would it cost to put a laptop in the hands of every student enrolled in K-12? If you conservatively estimate that there are 100 million students enrolled in K-12 and multiplied that by $300, that would be $30 billion in cost. Assuming you could negotiate a 50% discount if the country agreed to buy 100 million netbooks, that would cost $15 billion. That is low relative to the nation’s education budget and I believe it would give US students a competitive advantage over nations like China and India. A less expensive idea would be assistance to lower class families who may not be able to afford a laptop for their child. According to many academic thinkers, the greatest barrier to educational success is socioeconomic status. Financial assistance to poorer students would help bridge this gap. I think it’s a no brainer that part of the government stimulus package should be allocated to ensuring every student has access to this important educational tool. Do you agree? Please leave your comments.