My long-time (which is a better phrase than "old," as in, "known since college") friend Lynne Wainfan is trying to sell her children's middle school on upgrading their technology. She made a video.

I don't know about the New York Times comparison, though. Yeah, it may be more info than Jefferson got in his lifetime, but a lot of it's probably wrong or misleading.

Also, it's a little exaggerated--I don't think that half (or even a tiny fraction) of basic physics knowledge and math will go obsolete in two years, and that's what kids in technical majors in college spend most of their time learning. But the point remains that things are accelerating at a frightening pace, and the educational system is going to have to do things differently, or the future will be very scary. Of course, it may be anyway, for other reasons. But either way, it's where we're going to be spending the rest of our lives (yes, I know it's trite, but it's true).

That may be the least compelling presentation ever. Wildly inaccurate factoids that don't seem to be logically tied to the main proposition don't convince me even with a sappy soundtrack.

Marketing tip: Add some pictures of children too.

Bleck!

As for the substance I would posit the following negative arguments:

* Laptop are over prone to breakage, theft and infection. Secured desktops would be a better investment and cost less too.

* Is there curricula to run on these machines? Has it been tested, rigorously, and found to be successful at teaching? Wouldn't it make more sense to identify the curricula first and then buy the infrastructure to support it next?

* What's the cost to train the teachers, employ support personnel, and measure and audit the usage and effectiveness?

I do however, think there is a good argument for tech in education when the price point is lower, and the software is more compelling. http://www.laptop.org/

From my experience in the later years of high school and my current undergraduate studies, technology like powerpoint does absolutely nothing to aid learning. For teaching programming, physics and advanced chemistry there is no reason why students can't share a few dedicated labs.

What we need in schools are less crutches like laptops and photocopied study guides, and more teachers who can actually understand and teach the material.