M-Learning Device--Laptop

As I have mentioned in my previous post, mobile Learning or M-Learning is the use of mobile or wireless devices for learning on the move. There are various types of mobile learning devices, such as laptop, PAD, ipod, etc. They provide learners with the facilities and opportunities to learn "Anytime Anywhere". Today I would like to talk about a frequently mentioned mobile learning device—laptop, which is used in the classroom.

In the recent decade, an increasing number of schools are implementing laptops on their classroom instruction. There are five models of laptop use currently in place at the K-12 level, and each model has potential advantages, either in terms of instructional benefits, ease of implementation, or savings:
1. Concentrated-each student has his or her own laptop for use at home or in school;
2. Class set-a school-purchased classroom set is shared among teachers;
3. Dispersed-in any given classroom, there are students with and without laptops;
4. Desktop-each classroom is permanently assigned a few laptops for students to share;
5. Mixed-some combination of the above models.
In the concentrated model, teachers are free to integrate technology fully into instruction as well as assignments, since all students have access to a computer for homework, study, and projects. In the class set and dispersed models, teachers are free to integrate laptops during the school day; however, there may still be students within the same class who lack access to a computer in the home, so integration options are more limited. In the desktop model, although the computers are owned and maintained by the school, a student working on a computer-based project during the school day might be allowed to take the laptop home to complete their work. Also, teachers are better able to reconfigure their classroom setup to suit their technology integration needs. Laptops can also take the place of desktops in a traditional lab setting. For many schools, the primary advantage of laptops over desktops is in creating opportunities for all students to have access to a computer both during and outside of the school day.

Educators who work with laptops have begun to explore their unique advantages. They recently recognized innovative uses of laptops in K-12 mathematics and science education. Some award-winning ideas showed students using laptops to facilitate group work, to analyze data immediately during a lab exercise, or to conduct scientific investigations in the field rather than in the classroom. They also found that laptops were especially suited for writing activities, student projects, and presentations Other uses for laptops include creating spreadsheets to solve math homework problems; creating book reports that inspire student creativity with presentation software such as PowerPoint or HyperStudio; or having students routinely hand in assignments via floppy disk or connect to the school network and save their work to a central file server for the teacher to review, add comments, and leave for the student to retrieve.

Several studies suggest educational benefits related to laptop use. Specific benefits noted include: 1. increased student motivation, 2. a shift toward more student-centered classroom environments, 3. better school attendance, 4. sustained level of academic achievement for students.

Although many laptop programs are young and studies are still in progress, and solutions for issues of cost, technical support needs, security, and equitable access are challenging for many schools. However, with the educational benefits from the use of laptops, and the continuing improvements in technology as well as models of successful programs may make laptops an increasingly attractive option for K-12 educators and technology planners.

Click here to see the full text.

Take a look at this website, it gives us many useful laptop activity suggestions.

http://probesight.concord.org/curriculum/suggestions-handheld.htm