Kid-size computers
For nearly a year, Fresno Unified school officials searched for a laptop that wouldn't clutter a student's desk.
Thursday, school officials said they purchased 1,000 wireless laptops that fit on a desk alongside textbooks and notebooks, as well as give students the opportunity to build a digital portfolio of essays, drawings and other creations.
"This is cool," said Chris Mitchell, a student at Bullard High School, where school officials unveiled the 7-inch wireless laptops.
Fresno Unified hopes the laptops will help students increase test scores through the ability to research information on the Internet, as well as halt five years of declining enrollment by enticing parents to send their children to the district's schools.
Currently, the district has about 69,000 students.
"Anything we can do as a district to engage students in learning and keep them here is a good thing," Superintendent Michael Hanson said at a news conference that drew about 50 people.
In the next few weeks, the laptops will be in about 60 classrooms at 16 other schools. They will be shared by students and will remain in the classrooms.
But not every educator is thrilled with the $650,000 investment.
Larry Moore, president of the Fresno Teachers Association, said new computers are useful tools, but a majority of teachers and students will not have access to the tiny laptop. He said the district should have spent the money on fixing broken computers in many classrooms.
There are also mixed feelings among educators. Stephen Lewis, a geology professor at California State University, Fresno, thinks laptops are a useful tool, but they can also hinder the teaching process -- he often sees students with their heads buried in their laptops instead of paying attention to a lecture.
"Teaching and learning is a person-to-person business. Are we moving toward a remote-control classroom?" Lewis said.
Roy Bohlin, an education technology professor at Fresno State, however, said laptops can motivate students to solve problems that affect their friends or community or the world.
"Problems in textbooks are sometimes boring," Bohlin said. "Laptops can increase critical thinking because students will have access to resources on the Internet."
Kurt Madden, the district's chief technology officer, said he has heard the debate before. In his final analysis, he said: "Teachers will always be a critical part of the classroom."
Fresno Unified's endeavor is the first of its kind in the nation because the laptop maker, ASUS, unveiled the 7-inch creation just last week. What makes the ASUS laptop unique is its built-in keyboard, said ASUS project manager David Leung. Other small laptops have touch-screen keyboards, he said.
Fresno Unified was the first school district to purchase ASUS' 7-inch laptop, Leung said.
In addition, Fresno Unified might be the only school district experimenting with giving every student a digital portfolio, Madden said.
In the old days, a student's portfolio included drawings, essays and poems written on paper, and art creations such as ceramic sculptures. Parents often saved their child's work in a folder or large envelope, causing the larger creations to get folded or ruined.
With this technology, Madden said, a student's portfolio will include everything a student writes and saves in the district's computer network from kindergarten to 12th grade. Because the laptop has a camera, students can take a photograph of their artwork or make a video of their school project.
"Kindergartners can take pictures of finger-paint drawings that can embarrass them the rest of their lives," Madden joked at a news conference.
Students will have their own identification code and password to protect their portfolios from intruders. Only school officials and parents will have access to the portfolios, Madden said.
Though he found the small keyboard a bit difficult at first, Mitchell, a Bullard junior, gave the 7-inch laptop a passing grade. "They call us the Y generation and sometimes the Internet generation. It's confusing what to call our generation. All I know is that technology has been part of my world."
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