Some Iowa Students to Get Individual Laptops

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A northeastern Iowa school district plans to provide students with personal laptops next year.

Fifth through 12th-grade students in Central City will get their own laptops as part of the Apple 1 to 1 learning initiative, Superintendent John Dotson said.

Students will have training in how to use the computers and will be allowed to take them home, where they can download classroom material.

Dotson said there will be efforts in place to block access to inappropriate Web sites.

The district will pay $550,000 over four years, using local-option sales tax money. Other districts such as Carroll and Mount Ayr are also part of the Apple laptop initiative, but Dotson said his district's program is including more grade levels.

He said the move is necessary given students' technological savvy is shifting learning methods.

"If we're moving into the technological world, we've got to get rid of antiquated ways of teaching," he said. "We're leveling the playing field and we're raising the bar."

Vol. 27

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