In recent months many K-12 schools wishing to bring 1:1 computing to their students have begun considering netbook computers. In Maine, for example, as the 1:1 MLTI program is transitioning from middle school to high school, a number of districts have turned to netbooks as a low-cost alternative to laptops. In another example, the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation in Southern Indiana issued netbooks to all 7,200 of its high school students at the start of the school year.

"They are the hottest products out there," says Thomas Greaves, the president of the Greaves Group "You're seeing so many business people and soccer moms and everybody buying netbooks. And now the schools that are starting a large-scale deployment of 1-to-one computing are definitely going to look seriously at netbooks."

However, Intel's Eileen Lento cautions potential buyers on what is lost when buying netbooks. "Overwhelmingly, these decisions are being driven by price, but like anything else, you actually get what you pay for." Netbooks are smaller than laptop computers, are slower,and have less memory although they can still be used to tap into the Internet.

There are downsides and upsides to netbooks," says Leslie Wilson, the executive director of the One-to-One Institute. "The key to the whole thing is to look at what you're trying to accomplish ... what are you going to use them for."

Source: EdWeek's Digital Directions. Netbook-Laptop Debate and Courierpress.com Tapping Technology: New netbooks integrated as key learning tools by John Martin.