To begin with, let’s clear the air on one point: hardware is not one of the challenges. Moore’s Law is very much alive in the manufacturing of handhelds.

An exciting aspect of wireless mobile technologies for education, as described in the literature today, is that tools that first existed only on expensive desktop machines are now being made available on inexpensive handheld units. This should ease problems of access to powerful representational tools.

Da Laptops immer noch gleich viel oder mehr kosten als herkömmliche Computer, ist es für die Schulen unmöglich, jedem/jeder Schüler/in einen solchen zur Verfügung stellen zu können. Handhelds machen es deshalb erstmals möglich, in der Primarschule jedem Schüler und jeder Schülerin einen Computer zu vertretbaren Kosten zur Verfügung zu stellen.

Given that the cost of a desktop or laptop unit is about $1,000, the likelihood of achieving a 1:1 Student to Computer ratio at the national level is exceedingly low. But an opportunity has arisen, in the form of low-cost, handheld Computers that might enable 50 million U.S. school children to have one of their own to use on a daily, personal basis. It is conceivable that, at the cost of a pair of tennis shoes ($100), a child or his or her family could purchase a handheld Computer (some cost more).

Innerhalb dieses Pocket-PC-Projekts war erstmals gewährleistet, dass alle Kinder mit gleicher Hardware ausgestattet waren und so in einem Teilbereich gleiche Chancen und Möglichkeiten hinsichtlich der Computernutzung geboten bekamen. Dieser soziale Aspekt zählte zu den wichtigsten Anliegen des Projekts. Die Kinder der Versuchsklasse sollten die Geräte daher nicht nur "unter Kontrolle" in der Schule nutzen, sondern in weitgehender Eigenverantwortung auch im privaten Bereich - am Nachmittag, am Wochenende oder in den Ferien.

However, today the central reason for the lack of impact of technology on K-12 - access - should be viewed as a solved problem. While there simply isn’t enough money to purchase a desktop or laptop computer for each of the 55,000,000 K-12 students in the United States, handheld computers, at an initial cost of around $250 (and a low Total Cost of Ownership) provide K-12 with an affordable and appropriately-functional computing device. Each and every student can now have his/her own personal computer. We can finally achieve a 1:1 student to computer ratio.