With Computers, Apple Project Finds Less May Be More

By Peter West Hermitage, Tenn.

First-time visitors to Dodson Elementary School here often wonder if they've come to the right place.

They've been drawn to the 983-student K-6 school on the outskirts of Nashville by the promise that they will see the technologically advanced classroom of the future. Most figure they'll find students seated individually at their desks, staring at computer screens and intently pecking away at keyboards in solitary study.

What they find instead are large and rather traditional open classrooms cluttered with books, where children in multiple-grade groupings work cooperatively on projects with one another...