Michigan Rethinks Laptop Giveaway Program
Megan Dwyer, IT&T News/The Heartland Institute
June 1, 2005
excerpt: Computer network configurations can vary between districts and even between schools. Connecting dozens of laptops to a school’s network is not as simple as plugging in a cable or flipping a switch. Support, security, bandwidth, and data storage costs are difficult to quantify, but very real nevertheless. One current grant recipient, Leland Public Schools, is paying $40 per laptop this year ... and Leland is a small district that already had a wireless network underway.
Another concern is that inadequate teacher training might mean the laptop program actually detracts from traditional curricula. Technology education may be important, but there are many ways to accomplish it that do not require giving sixth-graders laptop computers.
The Freedom to Learn program may have allowed some politicians to appear to be leaders in cutting-edge education technology. But a hard look at the program’s costs and its lack of quantifiable results suggests Granholm was correct to pull the plug on the sixth-graders’ laptops.
Posted by Jessica Millstone at May 24, 2005 04:08 PM