Giving every child a computer of their own rather than having them rely on machines in classrooms can make a lot of sense. According to the e-Learning Foundation, a charity working to improve children's access to ICT, providing children with individual laptops to use at home helps to engage disaffected children and improve literacy and numeracy.
There are other advantages too: easy access to online research, fewer bits of paper to lose, excellent potential for collaboration, the ability to take their work with them, and the fact some children type more quickly than they can write means they can express themselves better. Together with cloud computing, one-to-one machines unlock many new possibilities for learning.
However, there are some key issues to consider. Teachers need to be well trained or they will have little hope of controlling what tech-savvy pupils do with their devices. Nothing is more distracting than an internet-connected computer. You also need to establish how the machines will be funded, whether they are standardised (and, if so, what type of device to pick), how they are secured – physically and in terms of protection from malware – and how the school will cope with the fragility of expensive computers, the screens of which may shatter if dropped.
Despite their lack of a built-in keyboard, tablets are worth considering. They are generally cheaper than laptops and less vulnerable to unwanted applications.
Parental involvement is critical, not least because they may contribute to the cost and need to be persuaded of the value. Furthermore, the IT infrastructure supporting the machines is as important as the devices themselves and needs expertise to address issues of control, security and compliance.
