Question: Why do laptop initiatives succeed for about two to three years, and then the gains fall away?

Comments: There are a number of factors that cause this. In this article I will examine the issue of sustainability.

First let me start by pointing out that the literature and media tend to focus on schools who are showing success with laptops. The schools who encounter problems typically do not broadcast this. All schools have troubles the first year and mostly this is with logistical issues or unforeseen problems. For example, no one considered the existing desks when designing the programs. The current desks slant down and are too close to the user. The laptops keep sliding off of the desk into the students lap, but there is not enough room to type that way. A quality pilot program should have detected this.

Another common mistake is to over estimate the teachers’ skills and therefore not provided enough training. Additionally, the administration may not have considered how teaching will change with laptops and therefore did not provide curriculum and pedagogical training. An example of proper training is a local district that has 28 days of staff development included in the first year alone.

However, the first year there is a lot of money on the table and many people put their necks on the line for success and schools typically do what is needed to make things work. This means that with most of the implementations I see a lot of success in the first year or two. It is in the third and four year that problems start to develop.

One of the reasons laptop initiatives fail is that districts overlook the cost and effort of sustaining the system. Everyone gets all excited about deploying the system and having a laptop. However, this is an everyday situation for teachers and students. After a year or two the novelty is worn off and the laptop is just another tool they need to use. Teachers start slipping back into old patterns of instruction and the lessons become more lecture again. As the learning slips into its old mold, students find that the laptop does not help as much and it is still just as heavy.

The successful schools maintain a steady and ongoing stream of staff development activities for technology integration. They support the instructional technology position as a curriculum support position that happens to be in the technology department. Other districts decide they spent enough on training and the staff development for technology drops and the instructional support goes away. This leaves the weaker technology teachers struggling and they start to fall back. This also leaves the new teacher to the district at a disadvantage due to fewer resources being available.

The biggest factor is the purchasing model. Most districts with failed programs purchased all of the laptops for a specific campus all at once. There was a huge board debate and the money came forth as a one-time budget item. The warranties, training, installation, and other costs were all added together. The project is presented as including all costs. Usually there are limited support positions created.

When the laptops are new this is not a big problem, other than the huge deployment. As the laptops age this budget item is gone and the regular technology budget must now support the equipment and staff. Laptops are typically more expensive to repair and take more time then desktops. In addition, most models are custom designs and parts go obsolete. All of these factors and more add up to a maintenance cost exceeding that of desktops and usually exceeded the previous amount budgeted for repairs.

There is also the used factor. Students are now being issued older, dented, scratched, and possibly broken laptops at their entrance to that school. If you are in high school and you receive a new computer, you can keep that machine for the duration and you will live with what you damage. If you receive an older machine, you have a tendency to handle with less care and you expect a new one at some point.

All of these factors contribute to a lower performance. So how can this be avoided? Some districts deployed their laptops on entrance to a specific school, such as high school. The students are issued laptops their freshman year and keep them all through high school. The budget in this case is set up as a recurring item, rather that a one-time. The initial cost is significantly less and since only one grade level of teachers each year is trained, the initial staff development is scheduled over four years, making the cost easier to justify and sustain after that.

In this case students are receiving new equipment and are expected to care for it for four years. Teacher training is available each year and the budget is set at a maintenance level that will need to continue for the foreseeable future, thus avoiding pitched budget battles in the board room every four or more years.

This does not guarantee success, but eliminates another large set of problems.