IBM thinking ahead: Schools get Wi-Fi. Will students benefit? 

IBM thinking ahead: Schools get Wi-Fi. Will students benefit?

IBM is committed to being the IT industry leader in bringing cutting-edge technology to customers and to the community. Bill Luse, Vice President of Personal Computing for IBM in Michigan, offers his views on the popularity of wireless fidelity and its potential uses in the classroom. Luce reasons that what is really needed now is to make the Web a learning technology -- to integrate the Web into the learning experience, as an adjunct to every subject, in every classroom.

He cites Michigan, where currently 8,000 children statewide have access to the Web, thanks to an educational program known as Michigan Wireless Learning. The program is an effort by the Michigan Department of Education and Michigan Virtual Learning.

As Wi-Fi becomes more popular and more affordable, it takes much of the sting out of the constant debate between education technology "haves and have-nots," and puts the wireless Web within economic reach of every school district and school.

That is where adults come in, Luse says, as this latest generation of wireless Web technology won't transform education all by itself.