When Notre Dame High School in Peoria, Illinois, opens for the 2010-11 school year, it will offer a greatly revised schedule and classes that assume that every freshman and sophomore has his or her own laptop computer. While the students are responsible for purchasing the computers, each costing about $900, they can spread the payments over all the years they are at the school. The school is adding multiple wireless access points that will allow students to use their laptops throughout the school.

The laptop program is part of a broader redesign of the school's curriculum including block scheduling, a later start time and additional elective offerings. Textbooks will play a smaller role in the curriculum as students access digital content that is more motivating and up-to-date. The school anticipates offering online courses in the future that will, as Notre Dame Principal Charlie Roy puts it, "change the definition of a snow day."

"The world is changing and kids are competing globally," says Roy. "We want to prepare kids for their future, not our past."

Source: Journal Star - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services, Notre Dame Looks to High Tech Future