Washington school system ponders distributing laptops to middle schoolers

• While some schools worry about money for their students' textbooks, Talbot County officials may soon be fretting about money for their students' laptop computers.
• Talbot could become the first school system in the state to issue laptops to students system wide, if the board of education gives final approval to the plan Tuesday.
• The $2.5 million plan calls for every eighth-grader in county schools to get an Apple iBook laptop, beginning this fall, that they could take home and keep for five years.
• Succeeding classes of eighth graders will be issued laptops, until every student in grades 8-12 has one.
• "I want them (students) to have the technology, because I want them to be able to use it 24/7," said Talbot Schools Superintendent Karen Salmon.
• Carole Redline, director of educational technology leadership at Goucher College, said that without the right guidelines, for example, students might check e-mail, message one another or browse the Web during class.
• Without that, teachers will not be able to help students use the laptops to their full advantage, she said.
• Salmon said teachers would get an ongoing technology training, including summer sessions and regular workshops, to prepare them to use the computers in the classroom.
• While some private schools have issued personal laptops to students, and other public schools have expressed an interest to Apple, state officials said they believe Talbot is the first public school system in the state to hand out laptops.
• Talbot does have the advantage of being smaller than many counties -- it has only one high school.
• "I hear lots of complaints about the library," Towers said.
• She added that the school system will stop paying for students' Advanced Placement exams after this year, and that her school lacks many resources.