Students in Illinois’ Schaumburg Township schools are now receiving iBooks, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. As MacCentral reported in February over 5,000 students in the school system will receive Apple laptops over the next three years.
By fall 2004, each fourth through sixth-grader in northwest suburban School District 54 will get an iBook to use both in school and at home — about 5,200 computers total, the Sun-Times reports. The US$6.6 million program includes hardware, wireless Internet access for classrooms and 21 digital video cameras. The iBook program launches with 1,735 laptops going to seven schools. Another 1,735 will be distributed in spring with still another 1,735 going to students in fall 2004.
The school district’s efforts mirror those of Henrico County, Va. and the state of Maine, where similar efforts have been made to provide pupils of various ages with daily access to laptops. High school students in Henrico County recorded their highest SAT verbal and math scores ever last year — an achievement some attribute at least in part to the laptop program, according to the Sun-Times.