I just read about this cool initiative in Maine called the Maine Learning Technology Initiative that provides use of laptops to 7th and 8th graders in public schools, and is now expanding to include high school students.
They just ordered 64,000 Macbooks for this reason!
I think it is awesome that they are so serious about helping young students keep up with new technology. They said in a report that having laptops has helped students with learning, especially with writing. Also, knowing how to use the Internet and providing support with computer use is probably huge for families. That makes sense to me.
It doesn’t seem like a program exactly like this would work everywhere, mostly because most other states are more populous, but it is a great example of what direction education can go in to support this up and coming generation.
