First paragraph: Portable computers are, to all intents and purposes, smaller versions of the common ‘desktop' machine. Depending on their configuration, they can be as powerful as desktop machines but they have one major additional attribute. Instead of taking the work to the computer, the lightness and design of portables enables them to be carried to the place of work - to the school desk, to the library, on the field trip... Portable computers, therefore, hold out the promise of putting convenient and personalised computing power not just in pupils' hands but in teachers' hands too