A rationale for learning with laptops

Human developments are not gradual or smooth; they are punctuated by surges in development such as that experienced in the Bronze Age, the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution. These periods are evidenced by rapid advancements in medicine, economics, transportation and agriculture greatly improving knowledge, health and wealth.

Life in the 21st century is engulfed in an explosion of advancements, not just in isolated locations but across our global community. There are many more graduates, many more inventions, we’ve decoded the human genome and we are operating at the nanoscale. And, with growing access to the internet and World Wide Web with increasingly affordable, powerful and portable technologies, many more of us are able to access and contribute to the exponential growth in the world’s knowledge. These developments continue to impact on the education sector through curriculum, pedagogy and educational technologies.
To prepare our students for life, work and study in the 21st century, a period characterised by inconceivable intellectual growth, our students need to be equipped with the knowledge and skills to enable understanding, engagement with and contribution to our growth as a civilisation. A modern learning environment should be very different to the time when we were preparing students for an industrial world where mass production guaranteed regularity of pattern and form. This is not what characterises life in the 21st century, where innovation, creativity, problem solving and critical thinking abilities are vital.
Placing a wireless-enabled laptop in the hands of every senior student in our schools will fundamentally and irrevocably change the learning landscape. These laptops will allow students to learn more in a greater variety of ways.
They will enable teachers to draw on the power of the internet and software applications and they can offer all students the chance to write, draw, create, communicate and collaborate - aided by technology. This will contribute to an environment where students are motivated and engaged in learning. And we know that when students are enthusiastic and interested in what they are doing, they can achieve more.

• Students need to develop skills in gathering, selecting and analysing information to engage in deeper knowledge and understanding of fields of study.

An explosion in the generation of new information and, more recently, the ever-improving access to this has meant that the emphasis has shifted from the importance of information itself, to the importance of being skilled in identifying, organising, synthesising and evaluating information. The role of teachers is critical in ensuring our young people can find relevant, accurate information, and extract and organise data and evaluate its usefulness to improving learning outcomes.

• Students need to learn to create content for a particular purpose for an identified audience using appropriate technologies, especially through access to interactive digital technologies.

Users of the World Wide Web can expand their role as consumers to creators of content adding fuel to the information explosion already described. Web tools allow users to easily comment on others’ work and create content for a worldwide audience within minutes. This is changing our position in the world from passive receivers of information to one that is much more participatory where more and more people are able to share their views and engage, more fully, in global citizenship.

In schools, students need access to interactive digital technologies such as personal laptop computers, blog tools, webpage creation software and the internet as tools to assist their participation in this world.
Teachers designing technology-rich lessons, scaffolded learning in a purposeful way will build skills to enable students to interact safely and constructively within online global communities.

• New technologies being introduced in schools will allow students to communicate and collaborate in a greater variety of ways for a range of purposes.

The communication and collaborative capacity of the World Wide Web has changed not only what we do but how we do those things. Scholarship, research, banking and recreation are but a few of the aspects of our modern-day lives that have changed irrevocably. In an educational context, access to digital technologies provides students with a myriad of tools to communicate and collaborate with their peers within and beyond the classroom in ways that may not yet be imagined.

Laptop computers, software applications and the internet are modern-day extensions of pens, paper and a postal system to greatly expand the repertoire of ways students can find information, build knowledge and make connections from the classroom to the world beyond.

• Students need to develop high-level technological capabilities.

Underpinning these strategies is the development of students’ knowledge and skills in information communication technologies (ICT) to ensure successful participation in this learning environment. Teachers have a pivotal role in identifying the ICT demands of their learning area and designing activities that integrate learning about ICT and improving skills in relation to learning about their subject.

• Teachers need to be equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to design a technology-rich learning environment to enrich students’ learning

Thorough teacher professional learning supported by innovative ready-to-use curriculum resources is essential in creating learning environments where these technologies will be used by students to learn more in novel and interesting ways.

Teachers are seeking subject-specific training with practical solutions for key learning areas, with a focus on how to utilise the technology in the classroom extending across a range of programs and their applications.

The interrelationship between curriculum, pedagogy and technology is at the core of education in the 21st century. The exploration of the concepts that students might learn better when empowered with laptops and investigating the effect of using laptops on student engagement and achievement is central to an approach to support the Laptops for Learning Program.