> The answer to the question of laptops vs. textbooks should be obvious when you consider the real question -- "What is the real purpose/function of education?"

> Textbooks, calculators, pens, paper, computers, maps, and typewriters ... and the list goes on, are all tools. For any one tool to totally replace another it must provide at minimum, equal service and capabilities. A notebook computer cannot provide equal or even greater capability than a textbook. The most basic support for this statement is that you can take a textbook anywhere, anytime, without regard to any form of power source (excluding ambient light) and it will function. This is not so of a computer (at the present time). There are many other comparisons that could be made between textbooks and computers extolling the differences but none of these really address the question of the purpose of education.

> If we can agree that (and I suggest that we should) the purpose/function of education is to provide students with knowledge and skills that can be transferred between disciplines and applied to real life problems and situations, then we can spend less time addressing whether textbooks should be replaced with laptops and spend more time on how each can individually and cooperatively be applied to meeting that end.

> There have been many approaches to providing education to students and many of these processes and methods have been repeatedly recycled. We are still looking for the "right" or "best" way to provide students with the best education possible. What we have found and acknowledged is that there is no singular way a person learns. If people all learn differently, how can we justify the use of one tool over another to achieve this end.

> What we should be discussing is how to use the computer to augment our educational system rather than what can it replace.

I agree with you. Please see my comments below.

It has been said "There are no new problems, just new undiscovered
solutions." Technology in schools is just that: a new solution to be
integrated into the system to solve the problem of educating our youth.

My understanding of the purpose of education is to teach our youth to think
critically; problem solve; work cooperatively in a productive enterprise; to
communicate with peers, superiors, mates, children, counselors and fellow
citizens; and make decisions both in life experiences and productive
functionality. It is by teaching the rudiments of reading, writing and
arithmatic in our current structured environment that we teach each person
the tools to do these things. Too often we overlook the real pupose of
education and leap into creatiing massive transformations of
functionality(specific subject) which ignore the real problem: educating the
kids. The challenge before us is to create a balance which does both:
educating for life experiences and creating a hirable functionality in each
individual.

Technology is a tool which will change how we educate for life and
functionality. How we change is encumbered by many anacharisms:
agregarian calender, physical school building structures, organizational
hierarchy, school day time scheduling, assessment techniques, textbook
structure, and curriculum to name just a few.

Technology's impact is to increase the speed of communication, the speed of
research, reduce the drudgery of writing, increase the appeal of information
presentation, the integrtion of sound and graphics in adddition to text. It will
also impact the methodology of teaching. Teachers may asses students as
part of the small group assignment rather than on individiual work. This will
change assessment techniques and may reduce teacher drudgery of
individual evaluations. Technology will impact the way we desing buildings,
how we use the time when in the building. I can even see a far reaching
impact that the importance of current cocurricular activities will increase as
structured classtime is reduced. Text books will change, they may be more
structured problems rather than sources of the information about the
problems. They will probably remain the bluprints for functionality of
education. Each discipline needs the hierarchy to maintain a focus on the
needs.

How do we creaate a vision of what the future will look like? we should
look at the whole problem of eduction in the following dimensions:

textbooks: what might they look like? more problem presentation,
less comprehensive material to answer the problem. They will either
have a functional purpose or life experience focus. The computer will
supplement the textbook not replace it.

school buildings: Media centers, work cluster areas, some functional
orgainztion, using external facilities. Creating greater community
participation.
curriculum: content may not change much; but methodology,
assessments, assignments and teaching strategies will change.
computers: they will be more universal than we see today. The tools
in use in 5 years have been invented but effective evolution will
change how we use them.
Teachers will change their strategies.
students will both demand and create the introduction of technology.

As I think through this challenge. I see the need to increase the importance
of the independent study areas, such as libraries and computer labs. These
areas may need to be created into a functional hierarchy for Mathementics;
sciences; languages: english, spanish, asian,etc.; business skills of word
processing, data input, file retreival, etc; transprtation education; other work
skills of drafting, construction. Each department will need to have their own
technology focus to determine how they should use the new tools to achieve
the dynamic result desired.

The school building and whole organizational architecture will have the life
skills focus. The department structure internal to the school will create the
success on the second requirement of productive functionality of each
student.

I see clusters of computers in various departments focused on their
functionality.
I see classrooms which are orgainized to accomodate both individual and
group teaching techniques.
I see improved common space use of libraries becoming where multiple
function assignments are handled and general research is done.
I see all students motivation improved.