"Outside school, students are totally wired. Inside, they 'power down.'"

That was the opening line to an excellent article from GuelphMercury.com, "Why make tech-smart kids step backwards to learn? boards ask."

"If their social lives are electronic, how can school life be paper and pencil? . . . We'll have trouble reaching them, and they'll have trouble learning," said Trustee Howard Goodman of the Toronto District School Board.

He pushed the association to examine the issue two years ago after seeing a newspaper ad for $500 laptops and realizing that, in a few years, it will be cheaper to give each student a computer than continually provide up-to-date textbooks.

"When that happens, the world changes," said Goodman.