Carrying an armful of heavy textbooks to and from class may become a thing a past, that is if Marvell has anything to do with it. That's because Marvell this week announced a self-recognized "bold new education initiative" to deliver a sub-$100 mobile tablet called "Moby" that the company claims could eliminate the need for buy and carry bount textbooks.

"Education is the most pressing social and economic issue facing our country and our times. I believe the Marvell Moby tablet can ignite a life-long passion for learning in all students everywhere. Marvell's goal is to fundamentally improve the way students learn by giving them more efficient, relevant -- even fun tools to use. Marvell's Moby tablet recognizes that every student learns differently and so it delivers an array of media choices fo different learning styles," said Weili Dai, Marvell's co-founder, VP, and GM of Marvell Semiconductor's Consumer and Computing Business Unit.

Marvell goes on to list out several advantages over traditional textbooks, which the company says are rising in cost and are too heavy for students. But are schools -- and society -- ready to switch to tablets? We'll soon find out. Marvell said it will soon announce a pilot program in partnership with the District of Columbia Public School system (DCPS) where the company will donate a Moby tablet to every child in an at-risk school.

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Maybe they do, and maybe they don’t. Regardless of all the science, there’s still no clear answer on the impact of computers in, or out, of the classroom. There are, however, some interesting findings being reported in the most recent issue of The Journal of Technology, Learning and Assessment, which relates some wins and some losses in “1:1 laptop” use.

In a system-wide assessment, based on a study of Texas’s Technology Immersion Pilot (TIP) program, researchers found that laptop availability in-school didn’t seem to improve test scores, but that when laptops were taken home student scores did improve: “Home Learning—which measured the extent of a student's laptop use outside of school for homework in each of the four core-subject areas and for learning games—was the strongest implementation predictor of reading achievement.”

A study of California students produced similar inconsistent results, but shed some light on possibilities. Laptops were used to help students over the “fourth grade slump”, which occurs when students make the transition from “learning to read to reading to learn”. No fourth grader experienced the slump, but all did, to a degree, in fifth grade--with laptop users showing smaller declines in reading comprehension than those without laptops. Overall, the students’ test score improvements were confined to things laptops were directly relevant for: literary response and analysis, and writing strategies.

The authors of this last report raise an interesting point: “what is best taught and learned with laptops is not covered on standardized tests at all.” In other words, laptops may be well suited only for some aspects of education, but these aspects aren’t yet well recognized, or aren’t being suitably tested. What needs to be done is first figure out where laptops can best be used, then measure their impact in ways amenable to the expression of this newly acquired knowledge.

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Sure, chalkboards and paper do what they do quite well, but we’re always looking for a way to apply technology to solve problems no one knew they had. Case in point, the “Boogie Board” from Improv Electronics uses a power-free transflective LCD to mimic a chalkboard.

No special tools are required; anything that can apply pressure to the tablet will work fine. You can draw whatever you like, educational or not. When you’re done, the tablet can be erased. The manufacturer claims the device will last for 50,000 erase cycles. If used in lieu of paper, Improv Electronics claims the savings are significant. The Boogie Board costs a mere $30.

Unfortunately, there’s no way to get anything off the tablet. No connecting to the computer, no syncing. This is for writing and erasing only.  So if you hate dry erase boards and wasting paper like it grows on trees, this might be a good buy. Okay, paper does sort of grow on trees, but this thing is still cool, right?

Everyone’s favorite computational knowledge engine, Wolfram|Alpha, has rolled out a new feature. Now, when entering an equation for Wolfram|Alpha to solve, users can press the “Show steps” link. It does just what it sounds like; it provides a step-by-step method for obtaining the solution. The Wolfram|Alpha blog post says, ““Show steps” feature allows you to learn basic mathematics on your own, or it can simply be a nice way to check your work!” This effectively makes it the machine we all wished we had while learning algebra in junior high school.

The option works for equations of many difficulty levels from simple algebra, all the way to complex integrals and derivatives. No more can math teachers assure honest homework by requiring students to show their work. But this is actually a very useful tool for honest students to more effectively learn mathematics. Go forth and use it wisely.

In recent years, Google has been taking a larger role in promoting the use of technology in education. It is now fairly common for the search giant to provide free access to premium Google Apps to schools, allowing them to more effectively conduct their business. Now co-founder Sergey Brin has made some sweeping statements that may outline Google’s future plans in the area of education.

Brin himself was a high school dropout for a time. He chalks this event up to the use of dated, uninteresting curriculums in his school. In a speech at the Google campus recently, Brin said, “The curriculum should include computer science. Mathematics should include statistics. The curriculums should really adjust.”

Brin held that schools need to take advantage of increasingly inexpensive technology, and more prevalent broadband availability to further education. He also suggests that students could learn more effectively by teaching computer use to younger students and senior citizens. The Google co-founder went on to discuss what he feels is the deplorable state of teacher pay saying, “They're not really paid a living wage.”

Google may be helping schools at little or no charge, but it’s not like they get nothing out of it. By introducing children to Google products early, the brand leaves an indelible mark on their ideas about technology. As a Google spokesperson said, “If they like Google Apps now, they'll ask for it by name. There is a value there."

Amazon is betting the future of textbooks lies in e-ink, not paper, but even more evidence is mounting to suggest that they still have some work to do before the device is accepted universally. The Kindle DX which comes with a slightly larger screen than most eBook readers, along with a $489 price tag aims to reduce the burden of carrying dozens of books from class to class, but its shortcomings have some students ready to trade back down to the dead tree edition according to the Associated Press. "I like the aspect of writing something down on paper and having it be so easy and just kind of writing whatever comes to my mind," says Claire Becerra, a freshman at Arizona State University. Becerra further complained that notes made on the device often didn’t make sense because they were laced with typos and she relies more heavily on the highlighter tool as a result.

When asked how the device could be improved Madeline Kraizel, a freshman at Case Western Reserve University said a better system for managing bookmarks was needed, and a way that page numbers could remain consistent, so both teacher and student could reference material properly. Other students suggested that reading PDF files was often difficult, and if they weren’t formatted properly, zooming in to make the text readable didn’t always work.  John Sherman, a first-year MBA student at the University of Virginia, claims that he still finds himself printing off case studies delivered in PDF format about half the time. "For the cases that require a lot of calculations, I find paper cases to be better," says Sherman, 31. "For me, it helps to scribble my thoughts in the margins."

It wasn’t all bad news for Amazon mind you. Students generally liked the concept behind the initiative, and many made use of some of the more unique features such as text to speech, allowing them to study more often. So, do you think the future of textbooks lies in e-Ink?

It's time to take that online degree out of the basement and tack it prominently on your living room or home office wall. Then when the topic inevitably comes up, you can tell the visiting in-laws that not only was your decision to take online classes better than skipping college altogether, but it might even have traditional colleges and universities beat.

Say what? That's the conclusion SRI International reached in a study for the Department of Education. The 93-page report ultimately concludes that "on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instructions."

A lot of research appears to have gone into the study, which examined comparative research on online versus traditional classroom teaching during a 12 year span (1996-2008). Some of those comparisons zoned in on K-12 education, but the bulk of it focused on colleges and adult continuing-education with a wide range of programs.

"The study's major significant lies in demonstrating that online learning today is not just better than nothing -- it actually tends to be better than conventional instruction," said Barbara Means, the study's lead author.

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