VietNamNet Bridge – A student has become a sensation in her journalism and international relations classes since she brought her laptop to lectures. But, perhaps such a thing should not seem so sensational.

Her professors lecture away and other students are busily writing while she is busily typing. Her laptop “notebook” is not only cleanly-written, but also able to capture images, sounds and such information as to give her an edge over classmates in reviewing and preparing for exams.

Here and there in lecture rooms students with laptops can be seen – a happy sign indeed. Today, when the country is gearing up for integration and development, “laptops in lecture rooms” has an important meaning. A laptop is not a pen, an ink-pot, or a notebook a student uses. The sight of a laptop does not simply tell a story about the development of educational equipment. More importantly, it implies all the progressive changes in culture, economics, science, and especially education that human beings have made. One suddenly remembers the words of the “computer king” Bill Gates during his 2002 visit to Vietnam. He urged Vietnamese youth to “use computers and get connected to the Internet.”

However, of more than 200 students in the journalism and international relations classes, only that student owns a laptop. Which opens one’s eyes to a painful reality: most students can’t afford a laptop now. So one keeps on wondering when Vietnamese students in general will enter the lecture rooms with laptops dangling in their hands.
When will all the young in Vietnam have the opportunity to “use computers and get connected to the Internet”?

(Source: Tuoi Tre)