Laptop

Laptop

Michelle Longley, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Definitions and background

A laptop is an electronic notebook (Barak, Lipson, & Lerman, 2006) that can be used as a mobile device (Kay & Lauricella, 2011).

During the 1990s, several schools within the United States experimented with laptop programs (Russell, Bebell, and Higgins, 2004). These programs had a strong allure to educational administrators seeking to promote the kinds of thinking, learning, and creativity required in the 21st century (Suhr, Hernandez, & Warschauer, 2010).

Decreased prices, wireless access, and increased convenience created popularity in this device (Kay & Lauricella, 2011). Approximately 65% of students bring their laptop to class (Fried, 2008). There has been a movement in many districts toward one-to-one laptop instruction, in which all students are provided a laptop computer, but there is concern that these programs may not yield sufficiently improved learning outcomes to justify their substantial cost (Suhr, Hernandez, & Warschauer, 2010). The use of laptops in higher education is a recent phenomenon (Lindorth & Bergquist, 2010). Preliminary evidence indicates that effective use of laptops is generally associated with courses that are traditionally associated with technology (Kay & Lauricella, 2011).

Links

User page http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/User:Michelle_Longley