By David Koenig, Associated Press
DALLAS — As the superintendent of a fast-growing suburban school district, Mike Smith faces a textbook shortage every fall.
This year will be a little different at the Forney Independent School District.
Every fifth- and sixth-grader at Johnson Elementary, 100 to 150 students, will receive a $1,350 IBM ThinkPad computer loaded with digital versions of state-approved textbooks and 2,000 works of literature. If the experiment works, the program will be expanded to other grades.
"We think this is better than simply going out and buying more textbooks," said Smith, who expected a shortage of 600 textbooks in August. Enrollment is projected to rise 20% or more at the district, and it takes three months to get new books.
Forney is the first district in the country to sign up with IBM for the digital notebooks as the company tries to get an edge in the competitive school-computer market and jump-start educators' interest in using more laptops, which has lagged because of cost.
Read the story at http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2004-04-26-school-laptops_x.htm
Posted by souzak at May 12, 2004 10:30 AM