SmartPhones

Interesting article at eSchool:

"Year after year, when students are asked on our Speak Up Survey what they'd most like to have, I get the same answer," said Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow, a national education group that publishes the largest annual survey of student, parent, teacher, and administrator attitudes toward school technology.

"I hear: I want a laptop," Evans said.

But it's not the specific nature of the device itself that kids desire, she explained; instead, it's what a laptop gives them: the ability to control their own knowledge. According to Evans, a laptop serves as a proxy for intellectual freedom--and with recent advancements in handheld and smart-phone devices, these technologies can offer much of the same experience, at a typically lower cost.

There's been a bit of talk about this in comments as well as emails I've received related to earlier posts. So, what do you all think? Let's take a poll on ask500people: Will SmartPhones be a viable alternative to Laptops for school and work?