Free laptops all very well but how best to use them in testing times?

Educational Technology

by Joanne Orlando, Sydney Morning Herald

We have the technology, now let’s focus on the main game: learning. The rhetoric of computer companies is that laptops in schools will transform how students are taught. Unfortunately, the federal government has succumbed to this rhetoric without thinking about the practicalities. Since the Rudd government launched its Digital Education Revolution, more than $400 million has been spent to provide every Year 9-12 student and teacher in government secondary schools with a laptop for the next four years. We were told laptops would revolutionise teaching methods and students would be learning the necessary skills to perform the jobs of the future. But like so many recent education policy announcements, things aren’t always as they seem.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/free-laptops-all-very-well-but-how-best-to-use-them-in-testing-times-20110511-1eitv.html