Evaluation of a Laptop Program: Successes and Recommendations

The overall purpose of this evaluation study was to determine the effectiveness of providing 5thand 6th grade students in Walled Lake Consolidated Schools (WLCS) with access to laptopcomputers with regard to classroom learning activities, technology usage, and writing achievement.The WLCS Laptop Program is based on the Anytime Anywhere Learning (AAL) program (AAL,2000), which has been in schools since 1996 and has impacted more than 100,000 students andteachers. The goal of the AAL program is to provide students the knowledge, skills and tools tolearn anytime and anywhere.The Laptop Program arranged to have laptop computers available for a monthly lease fee of fiftydollars. The Laptop classrooms were equipped with wireless access to the Internet and printers.The program also provided students and parents the opportunity to receive training on basiccomputer skills. The Laptop teachers received ten full days of professional development prior tothe 1999-2000 academic year and six one-half day sessions during the year. The training was basedon the NTeQ model (Morrison, Lowther, & DeMuelle, 1999) which provides teachers aframework to develop problem-based lessons that utilize real-world resources, studentcollaboration, and the use of computer tools to reach solutions. The lessons are typically structuredaround projects, which engage the students in critically examining community and global issues,while strengthening student research and writing skills.