Laptops given to all Edgecombe County students

Edgecombe County Public Schools were distributing laptops to all 2,100 high-school students Saturday, school officials said.

The school system has launched its 1:1 Laptop program to allow teachers to use high-tech instructional methods. Approximately 400 high-school teachers received laptops in August and spent the fall semester training in how best to use them in the classroom.

Students – accompanied by a parent – were getting Dell laptops at North Edgecombe, Tarboro and Southwest Edgecombe high schools Saturday. The Edgecombe Early College High School got its laptops in spring 2008.

The 1:1 Laptop program was partially funded by grants from the Golden LEAF Foundation, SAS Institute, Inc., and the North Carolina General Assembly.

The school system is working to establish Internet hot-spots throughout the county for students who don't have Internet access at home, according to the school system's Web site. Some online homework assignments can be downloaded and brought home.

The school system will collect the laptops at the end of the school year and update them over the summer. Filters will be put in place to monitor students' use of the Internet.