I like what you say about laptops totally changing things in the working world. It is interesting to think about saying to Google or Yahoo that we have found out that laptops are ineffective. I would have liked to see some interviews with people in Maine. I heard a podcast from one of their teachers about a conference she attended in another state and how shocked she was at how reluctant the teachers there were to change. She suggested that the laptops in Maine had changed how the teachers think. I know that PD is a big part of what they are doing.

Secondly, I am always disturbed when a report brings in an exciting example of what one school or class is doing with technology “For instance, he pointed to students at a middle school in Yarmouth, Me., who used their laptops to create a Spanish book for poor children in Guatemala and debate Supreme Court cases found online.” I just think that you can always point out one great classroom example for ANY innovation. The big question is “What is happening in general? I guess that one classroom can tell us something, but often it tells us that there is a particularly energetic or creative teacher. Then what?

Janice