In 2005, the first school in Berlin set up a “laptop class”, in which every pupil got his or her own laptop. The number of “laptop classes” has been increasing since then, so that more and more pupils have had the chance to participate in this new form of learning.

When these children are equipped with their own laptops in year 7, they have already learned how to use a computer at home. They have used it for playing video games, drawing pictures, chatting with their friends and many more fun activities.

Now, at school, they are supposed to use the laptop as a working tool. Their teachers will ask them to write texts with the help of a word processing program, to do research on the Internet or to prepare a power point presentation.

Nevertheless, there is always the possibility to get distracted by the Internet … quickly check your emails, chat with your friends or exchange pictures. The teachers try to control the online activities of their pupils but they cannot see everything. Do you think that these distractions will interfere with the learning process? Or are they to be tolerated because they teach children how to cope with different tasks at the same time turning them into multitasking experts?

author: Mareike

(Image: Joachim Schulz)