According to this USA Today story, teachers are finding that WiFi and laptops in the classroom is a mixed bag of results.
Students are coming to class, flipping their laptop computers open, and going shopping, among other activities observed by teachers. They are also answering email, chatting, downloading music, and doing anything but learning.
We're raising the Distracted Generation....kids and young adults so fixated on a steady flow of distracting digital bits--music, conversation, video, text, images--that they are having trouble learning and working. Even the 2008 presidential candidates are dispensing advice on the topic, with Hillary Clinton chiding Generation Y members for being "lazy."
I think all this will sort itself out eventually, but we can't just hand our young people all these devices and then walk away. We have to provide some guidance and supervision as we learn how to use all our new tools appropriately.