Journal 1 (NETS-T 2): Taking Laptops Schoolwide

Citation: Green, Tim, Donovan, and Loretta, & Bass, Kim. (August 2010). Taking laptops school-wide: a professional learning community approach. International Society for Technology in Education, Retrieved from: https://acrobat.com/#d=7rIs4heRCXPhOZp7l-otEg

The presence of laptop technology into early education is an issue that is addressed in the article primarily within the context of integrating its use within the curriculum and the need for teacher-teacher and teacher-student collaboration in order to fully use the hardware and software in an efficient manner. Collaboration is paramount not only because using laptops changes the way students learn and therefore changes the way teachers teach but also because these devices allow for a greater degree of access to resources are available to them online. The concept of the Professional Learning Community (PLC) is a manifestation of the need for collaboration, where teachers come together to share data on students and to set out lesson planning. Overall, the article focused more on the necessary environment for laptops to flourish in the classroom but did not adequately address two key issues such as (1) do the benefits for laptops in early education outweigh the costs (especially during a time of a budget crisis in education) and (2) in what ways will the use of laptops improve the students’ capacity to learn and absorb information.

Question 1
How will the use of laptops in the classroom encourage teacher collaboration?
Answer 1

Any change in teaching methods will naturally be difficult and a period of trial and error will ensue. In order for laptops to be implemented effectively otherwise, more, teachers provides an easier avenue for teachers to share information not only about resources they find online, but information of how some teachers are more effective than others by looking at how they set up their curriculum.

Question 2
What other pre-conditions are needed, other than the ones mentioned, for laptops to be implemented effectively in classrooms?

Answer 2
The most obvious pre-condition for laptops in classrooms is their affordability, especially in poorer school districts. The article simplifies the solution to the problem of integrating laptops without mentioning more mundane problems such as funding; while some school districts can afford to have one computer for every child in a particular classroom that thus, one could argue, by sheer numbers alone, laptops are already better integrated in the classroom compared to a classroom that can only afford a handful to be used by several dozen students.