For Some, Laptops Don't Compute

"The ones that resist it the most, it's sort of like, 'Look at Mikey -- he likes it!' "

But some teachers say they have felt pressured to emphasize laptops, even when using them might not be the best approach.

"You absolutely have to show that you're using them in some way, shape or form," math teacher Mercedes Huffman said. Sometimes, she said, students "have benefited from certain things I can do with a computer that I couldn't do before."

But Huffman said computers can be less efficient than paper in a discipline that often requires writing out problems or drawing figures. "There've been times when a geometry class said, 'Couldn't we have just done this on paper?' "

Another teacher, who did not want to be named for fear of angering administrators, said: "There's a big drive now to get everyone to do as much as possible on the computer. There's a real divide between those who see the computers as an end in itself and those who see them as a tool."

Others have embraced the laptops.

Mary Beth Kochman, chairman of the English department, said laptops won't replace books but will make course materials more accessible and help students who don't have computers at home. "I do think it has leveled the playing field," she said.

In Myron Hanke's physics labs, Excel spreadsheets have replaced graph paper, and students use the laptops to continue classroom discussions after the bell rings. Hanke said that once his students started using laptops, "grades in all my classes went up."

Some classrooms have gone virtually paperless, with most work done on the laptop. Riddile hopes to replicate this across the board. In two years, he said, "we'll have had hundreds of schools coming in here to see how we did it. This will be a national model here, I guarantee it."