Iva R. Martin
Valentine, Stephen J.“Laptop
lessons: a year in the life of take-it-with-you technology,”(2001)
http://electronic-school.com/2002/01/0102f3.html.
Valentine recaps his experience as a ninth grade English teacher when he incorporated the use of 18 laptops into his
classroom. His students wrote editorials, formatted the editorials as web pages and placed them on the class website.
He described a typical scenario as “controlled chaos.” He comparedthe wireless technical problems
to the quirks of his parents’ state-of-the-art new car in that the computers could not communicate with the network on a
frequent basis. Valentine realized a very important value of the Internet one evening as he lounged at home while online.
One of his students conferenced with him and invited other students to join the chat. Valentine saw the
Internet as a necessary medium for his students to communicate in the future and, also, was pleasantly surprised to receive
great responses from otherwise quiet students. He briefly touched on the fact that teachers need to keep up with current trends, but, in order to do so, they need training.
I read Valentine’s article with a smile and great empathy. My school has been piloting the use of thirty wireless
laptops for the last two years. The majority of the faculty are novice computer users. Their experience in
the classroom has been mostly Mac oriented, and the laptops are Gateways. For the most part, if the students
or staff want to use the laptops, they must log in with a user name and password. Frustration levels have been
known to run very high. Personally, I have seen the pleasure and excitement that students experience with laptop use.
I have worked with teachers, whole classes and small groups to train them on logging onto the network and doing
research on the Internet. I have run into the same communication problems with the network and the printer as
Valentine did. Likewise, I have seen students grow in their skills and appreciation for my assistance. I concur
with Valentine that we as educators owe it to ourselves and our students to learn and use technology. In my opinion,
educational use of the Internet has made me a better Media Specialist because I have met a personal challenge, and I am
encouraging the students to learn in a highly motivating format. Valentine made an interesting observation in his article to
the effect that poor students and poor teachers will remain the same, likewise good will be good. I find his statement to
be very cynical and, hopefully, not true in many cases. I have seen lower ability fifth grade students grow in their
research skills and utilize the laptops eagerly. Perhaps Valentine’s reference to accountability of technology use is the
defining factor for the Internet’s true worth.