Some W.Va. Schools Closing the Book on Laptops

A decade-old initiative to bring more laptop computers to the hands of public school students across West Virginia has fizzled out in some of the areas where it began, raising concerns about the long-term stability of 1-to-1 computing programs.

In 2000, every student and teacher in Wetzel County’s 175-student Hundred High School was handed a laptop, thanks to the Netschools Corp.’s 1-to-1 e-learning initiative, a joint venture by Netschools, the Appalachian Regional Commission, the West Virginia governor’s office, and several counties in the state. The initiative provided a wireless laptop to each student participating in the project to use in school and at home.

At the time, educators from around the state welcomed additional technology in their...