I teach seventh grade. For the past six years I've watched my students use computers to create amazing records of their learning. They've created original TV commercials to show their knowledge of persuasion, they've analyzed historical documents online and had online discussions about them. They have recorded interviews via podcasting. And when they do these things, they feel: engaged (because we live in a non-linear world and technology is the main conduit for all learning for kids and adults now); they feel ownership: technology means publishing and audience - two things that instill pride and work ethic in the everything the students contribute to these projects; and they feel connected to their own education.

Currently, while my school has a lot of technology, we must share laptop carts on a rotating basis. When I am lucky enough to have one, it comes with 20 laptops. My class size is 36. This year it is more likely to be 40, due to budget cutbacks and teacher layoffs. I don't see laptops as a luxury anymore -- the job world the students will enter as adults will be completely digitized. While there are still many aspects of education that are and should be face to face and not on a computer screen, the fact is that the work product, the publishing aspect, and the degree of independent learning and differentiation that a laptop and the Internet can bring a student is unparalleled in its power to spark interest and exponentially transform a students background knowledge. I urge my potential donors to watch a short 8 minute movie that sets the stage for why student access to computers is so vital in today's world and in today's classroom. You can view it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U Past the above address in your url address bar.

The solution is to have students have as much access as possible to laptops in order to publish their work, collaborate with each other and other classes and indeed with students from around the world, and to have the opportunity to pace their own learning and follow their own interests. 20 laptops devoted to my classroom will not give me a one-to-one ratio. But if I can have those full-time, then when I get access to a school laptop cart, we will have one-to-one ratio. Yes, this is a lot of money. But as a popular bumper sticker reads: "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." Our students deserve access. They deserve their own dedicated laptops. They deserve full participation in the world of Web 2.0, where collaboration and the pooling of resources has already changed the outcomes of national elections, created thousands of digital pen pals communicating from classrooms around the world, and provided all of us with unlimited access to information. Reading comes first my classroom. Last year we read seven novels. The students read over 30 million words. I don't want computers to replace novels. I want them to create limitless opportunities to expand our understanding of them.

Your help will make it possible for my students to have their thirst for learning met in the most powerful way possible. You are giving each student access to the world. In an overcrowded inner city classroom I am always doing my best to share my experience and my world. But access to the Internet and their own laptop will help the students explore the world not just through my eyes, but through their own. Virtual geography tours, collaborating as world citizens with classes from around the globe...this would be your gift.