Hi Brownie,
My ds12 does all of his work on a personal laptop that belongs to us - he takes it to school, uses it during class, and brings it home each night. He has access to classroom computers and he works on those when the full class is using them for projects, but for the most part he prefers to have all of his work on his laptop, and since we own the laptop we can control the software that he has available to him (which is more of what he needs than he'd have access to on a school computer). He was also offered a school district laptop to use, but he wouldn't have been allowed to install any software on it, what the district offered was limited, the laptop was very old and wouldn't hold charge, and ... the district wanted us (parents) to sign an agreement to replace it at the cost of a new laptop if it was damaged while our ds was using it. Sooooo.... we decided it made better economic and academic sense to provide his laptop ourselves
I would say yes and no to the "standing out a bit" in class when using his laptop. Our ds absolutely feels like he stands out as being very different because of it. However... when he was in public school last year, there were at least 2 other kids on IEPs in his 4/5 grade classrooms using laptops, as well as the teacher had quite a few alphasmarts which any of the kids were allowed to use, and two classroom computers available for any kids to use. During writing workshop, at least 1/2 the kids in the classroom were using some kind of computer. There were other times during the day when only the kids with IEPs (ds included) used laptops. When he started this year at his current school, ds was worried about looking different - so his homeroom teacher told *all* of his class that anyone who wanted to could bring in their laptop to use and that resulted in about 4-5 other kids starting to bring their laptops to school. Next year he's required to use an iPad because all 7th graders have to use iPads. He may still have to use his laptop for some work, but so far it's looking like he'll be able to use the iPad most of the time.
Back at his old school, which we left for a number of reasons, once the kids are in middle school the language arts teachers use netbooks in quite a few of their classrooms. Soooo.... from the outside looking in, he doesn't really look all that out of place when he's using his laptop.
He will, however, always look different in one way because he is different in one way - his handwriting looks like something a 2nd grader with not-so-great handwriting might produce. It *really* stands out when you compare it to his classmates. He also has an expressive language disorder and it takes him a ton of effort to write certain types of assignments. Before he had his laptop he used to just sit and stare off into space because he had no clue how to write. His teachers saw that as *very* different, often for the wrong reasons. *He* saw himself as being different because while he sat around not knowing how to do the work, he saw his classmates easily coming up with things to write about. Once he was allowed to open up his laptop, he had tools that helped him get started with writing. It still doesn't flow, but he feels less conspicuous re what he's producing and he is able to put a more productive effort into it.
So yep, he stands out with the laptop in class. Sometimes it bothers him, but as he's gotten older he's also come to value having the laptop to do his work, and that's lessened the impact he feels from "standing out". He complains mostly about how he "stands out" because the girls in his class call him a "brainiac" (and not as a term of endearment!).
polarbear
