The purchase of 2,326 laptops for all middle school students and teachers was approved recently by the Lee County Board of Education in North Carolina. The district is investing approximately1.5 million dollars in the computers as part of an effort to bring one-to-one learning for students in the 6th to 12th grades and to promote 24/7 learning. The district is beginning the program by issuing HP5101 mini computers to every sixth, seventh and eighth grade student in Lee County for the spring 2010 semester.

Students will be responsible for the care and well-being of their computers. They will pay about $50 per machine for insurance, with the district working out a plan to help students who cannot afford the $50. The computers will also have a chip in them to serve as a GPS unit, to help find them if the computer got "lost." Some school board members expressed concern that the students might not have enough respect for the computers since the computers had been given to them but experience in other one-to-one districts – especially those involving elementary and middle school students – shows that their fears are likely to be unfounded.

To offset some of the costs of the laptop technology participating schools are hoping to start cutting back on textbook costs and substitute digital textbooks for printed textbooks. The schools also hope that the program will move into the county's two high schools once one of them has been renovated to support wireless Internet.

Source: The Sanford Herald, Students getting laptops by Caitlin Mullen.