would you encourage laptop education from college level?

I cant say much on the issue , but i agree with the following article i got in daily mail : It's too soon for the experiment to yield hard statistics about how students are doing under the new approach, but administrators and staff offer plenty of anecdotal evidence that the experiment is working well. "What the laptops have created is a sense of excitement about learning in general," said Jerry Crystal, the technology integration specialist who troubleshoots the system and generally teaches students and teachers more about using their laptops. "They've created greater interest in research, writing, and projects students work on," he continued. "The laptops lead to a sense of discovery every day, keeping students more focused and on task. "Even the glitches and stumbling blocks," Crystal added, "are useful in teaching students persistence. Technology doesn't always work perfectly the first time; sometimes it's slow. Sometimes students have to make the technology work for them." Crystal also said sharing information about their laptops while working on projects fosters a genuine sense of cooperation and community among the students.

When I graduated from high school, one of my most precious possessions was my slide rule - and I wasn't even considering Engineering or Math! Pocket calculators came along while I was in college. The computers we had access to required special rooms, and you got your results by loading in tons of punchcards and letting the computer sort and analyze the data on them. These are tools, and it's appropriate that in our evolving world, they become more and more portable and accessible. In terms of practicality, though, I think there's a lot to be said for keeping books. If I want to read a book, I simply take it from the shelf and open it. I don't have to wait for it to load and I don't necessarily need electricity to read it. And while RAM's a wonderful thing, sometimes it's simply easier to navigate through a book than it is to move back and forth in a computer document. So - while I think it's not only inevitable, but a positive development, that the tools available to students to enhance their educations are becoming more and more powerful, sophisticated and accessible, I wouldn't quite write off books as a staple both of our continuing education and of our entertainment.