Laptop woes: bungling the world's easiest sale.

It's hard to believe that in 2005, the notion of a laptop for every student appears to be more controversial than ever. In fact, the proverbial laptop has hit the fan across the country. Shame on us.

The Cobb County, Ga., schools were well on their way to purchasing 63,000 iBooks for teachers and students when a cranky politician sued and got a judge to order an end to the initiative. The cause of the judicial intervention was an accusation of fraud. Voters approved a tax levy designed to "upgrade obsolete computer workstations," yet the judge seems to think that purchasing laptops does not represent an upgrade. This is a distinction without difference.

Missing the Point

If your educational goals consist of students making four-slide Powerpoint documents about frogs or using the Web to find five interesting facts about Spiro Agnew, then sure, go to Wal-Mart and buy the cheapest laptops.

Fiscal prudence with the public purse is noble, but it is irresponsible to make computer purchases based solely on price. Not all computers are created equally. A public agency should be able to make the case that the bundled iLife creativity suite and operating system that the Wall Street Journal says, "Leaves Windows XP in the dust," is worth a few extra dollars per unit.

Henrico County Public Schools made a great contribution to educational computing five years ago when it found a way to purchase more than 20,000 iBooks without raising taxes. Since then their missteps and public pronouncements have made it more difficult for other schools to embrace 1:1 computing. As Angus King, then Governor of Maine, fought for his laptop legislation, Henrico was in the news for inappropriate Web use and an overreaction to isolated student mischief. This led Maine and other jurisdictions to accept crippled operating systems that calmed the public's fears, but created unintended consequences down the road. Disabling iTunes means no Tupac, but it also means no Martin Luther King Jr., no Garageband music composition, no podcasting and no videoconferences with NASA scientists.

Just as Cobb County's laptop plans were hitting their stride, Henrico struck again. Their school board loudly "dumped" Apple and signed a contract with Dell for their next round of laptops. Henrico officials explained that iBooks don't have Microsoft Office on them. That's funny. Lots of other schools run Office on their iBooks.

Whatever it says on your business card, you're in sales!

When the legislature opposed his laptop plan, Gov. King traveled the state leading creative laptop-based history lessons and generating popular support. King spoke of the democratization of knowledge and opportunity. When he proposed Maine become "the learning state" with a reenergized economy, voters demanded that politicians support the iniative.

Whatever level of public support Cobb County's plans enjoyed, it was insufficient to ward off the opposition. The public was offered incremental gains from the new laptops. The district lacked the courage to say that every student would be expected to use the laptop. How can someone opt-out of using the principal instrument for intellectual work, knowledge acquisition and creative expression? Can a student opt-out of using books? Express a moral objection to lectures?

I've worked with many 1:1 schools over the past 15 years and have found it remarkably easy to justify the investment to auditoriums full of parents. It's an easy sale when you offer a vision of children learning in unprecedented ways. I share examples of at-risk students increasing attendance and engaging in sophisticated projects, sophisticated concepts being learned in ways impossible just a few years ago, enhanced creativity, more work-related social interactions and learning 24/7, not just between the bells. Images of children participating in the construction of modern knowledge as mathematicians, composers, artists, engineers, poets and scientists appeal to the hopes and dreams of parents.

We need to do a much better job of selling the dream of what computers can bring to the learning process and create more compelling models for citizens to embrace. We'll have plenty of time to do so while we clean up the public relations mess created by the recent ham-fisted laptop implementations.

For more from Gary Stager on this topic, go to districtadministration.com

Gary Stager, [e-mail], is editor-at-large and an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University.