by Christopher Dean, Will Hochman, Carra Hood, and Robert McEachern

Why Wireless Laptops? Node I
By Will Hochman

The rise of laptop use and the decrease in cost, coupled with the increase in hand-held computing devices, indicate that computing hardware is becoming smaller. Many classroom teachers celebrate this change after years of trying to see students behind or around monitors and large boxes. Along with smaller learning stations, wireless technology is now beginning to free students and teachers who were wired into a fixed place in their computerized classes. In the October 2002 issue of Wired, Nicholas Negroponte asserts that wireless technology is creating a revolution in communications technology because wireless networks (Wi-Fi) will "act like a small router, relaying to its nearest neighbors. Messages can hop peer-to-peer, leaping from lily to lily like frogs, the stems are not required." In essence, Negroponte sees Wi-Fi as a way to overcome monolithic networking. What could be a more ironic indication of Negroponte's wireless vision than April's Wired calling itself, Harvard Lampoon like, "Unwired"?

Node Two of "Why Wireless Laptops"