Student+Responses+(MLTI)

I asked all of my students today who among them had been a part of the Laptop Initiative in Middle School, and how many of those students had continued with laptops through High School. About half answered yes to the first, a quarter of them yes to the second question.

I asked about the impact...was it good, did they like the computers..what did they do, learn...and several other questions. The thing that stood out was, most of them naively started off negative saying things like, "yah, now I know how much I hate Macs," or "it was dumb, I just constantly surfed"‑‑so then I asked how many felt as though their computer use skills had improved, because of the laptops. A few said, "well, yah, of course, you use it, you get good at it." **Finally I asked, how many in my class were getting an "A." All the MLTI students raised their hands. I asked if anyone was struggling. Most of the others (non MLTI-the ones who did not have laptops) raised their hands.**

That class was introduction to Digital Imaging, taught using CS3 on iMacs. I had almost the same response from my web development class, taught in a PC lab. **Interesting that they don't see right away how much the laptops helped them. The questions about class grades and who is struggling was so revealing!**

Rachel Anne Guthrie, M.Ed Communications & New Media Southern Maine Community College rguthrie@smccme.edu