One to one solutions

I poked around some looking for information on one to one solutions. Again this is a new term for me. (Fairly common occurence for this course - thank you, Jeff). The choices seem to be PCs, laptops, & PDAs. I think for any district cost will be the deciding factor. I think districts have a better chance of providing one on one solutions through the use of PDAs. There were some interesting annecdotes on the Palm site describing how individual schools have utilized PDAs. The Arlington Virginia Schools have had success with their writing program utililzing PDAs. There seems to be a general consensus that students are more engaged. The big question of course is - does it actually increase student achievement? There are school districts that feel their test scores are higher and attribute it to use of use of technology, especially one on one solutions. This is one of those areas that can be hard to prove. Others feel that additional time is spent monitoring student activity because as we all know it's easy to get sidetracked. I do feel that it has to be a benefit to engage students so that they look forward to not only reading and writing but to publishing their work for others to see. I think it also comes down to motivation. I've always felt that it is the most important attribute a person can have and the ability to use technology to learn has to be motivating for students. As time goes on the cost of providing technology should decrease so that it will be more affordable for school districts.