The Digital Pencil: One‐to‐One Computing for Children. By Jing Lei, Paul F. Conway and Yong Zhao

(2007) New York : Lawrence Erlbaum ISBN-13: 978-0-8058-6060-3 (Hardcover) £37.50 247 pp The Digital Pencil describes the emergence and use of one-to-one computing programs within education. Written by three researchers whose combined laptop research touched 31,250 students, it is informed by research from 16 major ubiquitous computing projects across nine countries and six US states. The authors contextualise current practices within the history of technology in schools and comprehensively analyse the rationale for one-to-one initiatives. They outline the conditions that lead to more widespread laptop use, describe what such ‘use’ involves, discuss some differences between laptop and hand-held one-to-one initiatives, identify the issues that might concern or excite parents and critique the evaluations of one-to-one initiatives. The book is written to satisfy both the academic and practitioner audience with extensive citations to theory and research in addition to practical suggestions. The authors, though careful not to be zealous advocates, argue that ubiquitous computing for all schools is inevitable and that school leaders cannot simply avoid or ignore it. The authors consider that, in current and future globalisation, mobile learning (m-learning) will lead to ‘re-schooling’, in which “a learner's identity and sense of agency is likely to shift significantly” (p. 187). Using Web 2.0 as an example, they argue that new technologies are changing the way young people use technologies, moving from the role as consumers to one as participants, who produce, collaborate, re-mix and mash-up. As computing technologies proliferate, especially at home, the young people of today do not necessarily distinguish learning from playing, and the dynamic ways they use technology will shape our future world – in fact, students will demand more and better uses of m-learning outside, within and across school, home and community contexts. Some one-to-one initiatives specifically focus on literacy development, such as using laptops to improve authentic process writing (Indiana, USA), to support the writing of students with learning difficulties (Ireland) or to improve writing in mainstream classrooms (Canada). Not surprisingly, the research reveals that students most often use their laptops for taking notes, searching for information on the Internet, discussing online, communicating with teachers and friends and completing focused writing tasks such as homework papers, essays, stories and journals. Most if not all initiatives have evaluated their programmes against literacy goals, such as improved attainment in writing and/or reading. Measurements in the form of standardised tests, grades, grade points averages or the amount and quality of writing, show improvement in students' written work, including its organisation, meaning, style, audience and editing. Considerable research opportunities are noted throughout the book and the authors identify specific topics requiring empirical research such as the concerns frequently raised by policy-makers, administrators, teachers, parents and students about a possible decline in writing skills due to supports such as spellcheckers; the extent to which handheld/laptop computers introduce distractions in classrooms; the home component of school-based laptop initiatives; and ethnographic studies of youths' use of laptops. The authors' balanced critique of past evaluations reveals further research opportunities and a perspective shift. While in 2001 no peer-reviewed evaluations of laptop initiatives existed, today the many available are predominantly descriptive studies of implementation that use survey, interview and case study methods to understand project implementation from participants' perspectives, as opposed to outcome studies that use experimental or quasi-experimental methods to understand changes in outcome variables. More laptop evaluation studies focus on intermediate goals (such as teacher development, infrastructure or costs) than on outcome goals (such as student achievement or economic competitiveness). The authors complicate the issue by persuasively advocating the abandonment of “one-way causation models” because, they argue, technology and laptops are “not an independent variable driving change … and that getting the proper mix of learner, content, teacher learning, technology support and one-to-one computing must take place with an eye on both the micro- and macro-context of such innovations” (p. 169). This perspective is a recurring focus of the book – to build and promote an ecological perspective regarding technology integration, innovation and development. The ecological perspective uses the analogy of an ecosystem to understand the introduction of technology. The school is thought of as a complex ecosystem and computer uses are analogous to a living species that requires certain resources and interactions with other species and the environment to flourish; teachers and students are keystone species which determine whether technology is actually used; and other introduced innovations are exotic species that must fight for limited resources while also interacting and adapting. The authors argue, “This [ecological] approach assumes a reciprocally determining rather than causal explanatory model and may fit more powerfully with the manner in which various factors interact in one-to-one projects” (p. 166). Several examples in the book illustrate the limited nature of laptop studies that culminate with general claims about what works, and the authors suggest these should be used alongside the ecological studies that yield evidence of what works, when and how. This book supplies a plethora of practical suggestions for implementing successful laptop initiatives, for example, helping teachers negotiate the transition from a traditional to a ubiquitous classroom by providing laptops to teachers wellahead of the students, creating mobile laptop carts to ease into ubiquitous environments and offering professional development. Table 3.1 (p. 71) neatly summarises the conditions and school contexts that enable a laptop program to be successful, but it also emphasises the role of the interactions and evolution over time. The best mix for success, based on the research to date, involves strong professional development programmes for teachers, technical support and positive dispositions among teachers and school administrators toward technology-supported learning. The authors note that “it would be very costly (in every sense) if the lessons of … predecessors were disregarded” (p. 199). This book outlines those lessons for all those who are considering or already engaged in research or implementation of a 1:1 computing initiative.

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