That’s the name given to a special program at the Polytechnique de Montréal. I haven’t been able to track down the exact meaning of the acronym because all the references to this program have been deleted. The best approximation I can get is “Apprentissage Assisté par Portable de Polytechnique” which roughly translates to “laptop assisted learning”.

I got into the program when I started Polytechnique because it just made sense. I was studying software engineering and having a laptop with me at all times would help me do my homework anywhere I want. However, Polytechnique didn’t handle the program too well so it fell apart after the first year. This was their second attempt at such a program. Lucky for me, this time the failure of the program did not affect us as much as it did for the students of the previous trial.

Impact

Having a laptop with us at all times meant we could see the notes the teacher put online for us and we could experience the code snippets the teachers were showing. However, we also had access to the Internet and all its distractions. A lot of people from the group couldn’t handle the distractions and more than a few failed and dropped while others had trouble getting passing grades. There is so much that can be done online that is way more entertaining than listening to a boring teacher. Only the best teachers had the luck of having our attention.

Errors

Most teachers didn’t adapt their class to make use of the laptop. Most of them just released their notes online and allowed the students to open the laptop in their class. Furthermore, the group was a merge of students from many fields: some were studying computer and software engineering while others were studying civil or industrial engineering. Usually, the classes are grouped by domain to encourage the students to participate in their student committee. The year of A2P2 was the worst year for participation, only 3 or 4 of us were ever active in the committee instead of the usual 10 to 15 (I’m not talking about having a position in the committee, I’m talking about going to the events and helping the committee organize the said events).

Program termination

Fortunately for us, unlike the guinea pigs from the previous program, we bought our own laptops so when the program got canceled we were stuck with whatever laptop we had decided to buy instead of the one chosen by the school. We could still bring them to class and use them instead of the computers in the computer laboratories which were always full of students near the end of the semester. It was very helpful to always have access to a computer from anywhere in the school.

Lesson

Having a laptop during class can be beneficial so long as the teacher and the students are aware of the impact it can have. If the teacher is just a note reading machine then the students won’t pay attention and will either waste time on the Internet or work on their school projects. So long as the student doesn’t waste too much time, having a laptop can help, especially near the end of the semesters.