Dateline: 04/02/97 - by Walter H. Horowitz, Vice President, NoteSys, Inc.
In last weeks column, I said that the prime focus of this area of the Mining Company was using computers in schools in a new way, one in which every student every student gets to have their own computer for use all day at school and at home at night. We are on the edge of, do I dare say, a paradigm shift, where computers will move from being an item studied separately to one of the standard tools on the desk, taking its place next to pencils, paper and books. The evidence is mounting that this shift has already started. If you have any doubt, just take a look at the links in our library.
There is still time to register for one of the most significant events of the year for those interested in this topic, the "Learning with Laptops Summit '97" to be held in Atlanta, Georgia April 24-27. The schools that attended the U.S. summit last year have followed the lead of the Australian schools in creating laptop computer saturation programs. They have been quiet this year as they worked to learn how to change their schools through this program. The time has come for them to tell their story and to spread the word to new schools. I will be there and I hope to meet you there.
Word about these schools has been leaking out slowly. Just last week, there was an article about the Kent Center School in the New York Times. In September of last year, there was coverage of schools in the Seattle area in the Seattle Times. Not every article written is available online. "Students toting a new book: notebook computer" was published in the Dallas Morning News on Oct. 10, 1996 on page 1A. The article by Alexi Barrionuevo was about the use of laptop computers at Dallas' Ursuline Academy and Liberty Christian High.
There will be more and the trickle of information will build to a flood. I will try to follow it all and report on the best here for you. If you hear anything, drop me a line and let me know what you heard.
