Yesterday I came across this NPR program from May about "one laptop per child" programs in education. My position is well documented, but listen to some experts. There are three guests on the program with the second and third, both professors of education, being of most interest.
The second guest, Larry Cuban, states that technology enhancement rarely leads to improvement in student performance and "one to one" laptop schools are no exception. He poses a stark question: given that laptop schools provide little to no educational benefit, school districts should be asking before they proceed with a laptop program, "Do we have a better use for this money?"
The third guest, Nicholas Negroponte, does not dispute Cuban's assertion that laptops do not, yet, show any measurable increase in educational success. But, he says, laptops create excitement in the classroom and cut down on truancy. Also he plays down the importance of testing, saying that testing merely "has a place" in education, suggesting that he thinks measurable outcomes aren't that important. Negroponte is far more interested in students being "creative" rather than students learning content.
Give the program a listen and draw your own conclusions.
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