Microsoft Announces Anytime, Anywhere Learning

Dateline: 04/23/97 - by Walter H. Horowitz, Vice President, NoteSys, Inc.

For the past year, Microsoft and Toshiba have been supporting 52 schools nationwide in their efforts to use laptop computers to learn "anytime anywhere". Today, in anticipation of the Learning with Laptops Summit 97 that will start tomorrow in Atlanta, Microsoft has announced their participation in this program to the rest of the world.

A number of laptop schools have already had their story told. The Kent Center School in Kent, Connecticut was covered in a story in the New York Times on March 26, 1997. The Cincinnati Country Day School has posted the story of their laptop distribution day. The PALS project is another example of a school in this program and was included in an article in the Seattle Times on September 3, 1996. Articles that are no longer online have been published in the Dallas Morning News Oct. 10, 1996 about the Ursuline Academy and the Baltimore Sun on April 04, 1997 about the Oldfields School .

An example of a machine that might be used in these schools next year is the Toshiba Satellite Pro 430CDS. Imagine a school filled with students, all walking around with their own laptop computer in a backpack. You don't have to imagine it; I have walked the halls of such a school already. In some schools, all students from grade 4 and up have their own laptop computers. In other schools there may be only one class in one grade, a pilot program. There are both public and private schools involved in this program. There are schools in the program in communities with many different income levels; schools in the inner city, the suburbs and rural areas.

The key point of this program is that every student gets their own full featured laptop computer to use 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Every machine includes a copy of Windows 95, Microsoft Office Professional and a modem that can be used to connect to the Internet. Microsoft and Toshiba are funding a two year evaluation of the program. While the results of this study won't be available for another year, the reactions of the various participants are clear: the program is having a positive impact.

As I write this article, I am getting ready to leave for Atlanta. I will watch as the existing schools spread the word of their success to hundreds more. Next week's feature will be a report of that event.

Previous Feature