More Apples for Students--Springfield, IL, and Anchorage, AK

The Springfield, IL, School District is giving 800 MacBooks to sixth graders for use in class and to take home for homework. The lease with Apple Computer is for three years and provided through a grant from the Illinois State Board of Education favoring middle schools with below-average test scores, teacher shortages, low resources and feed high schools with low graduation rates. The MacBooks will be loaded with security software from Absolute Software that allows on to track a particular computer.

Over 60 students and four teachers at Wendler Middle School in Anchorage, AK, received MacBooks through a grant from the Alaska State Board of Eduction and Apple Computer. The students will also be able to use them at home as well as at school. It's a pilot program to test if the computers will improve learning.

[Dana Baggett]