Each school, district, or state has a unique set of circumstances and obstacles to deal with in implementing a one-to-one laptop program. That is especially true of Denali Borough School District in Alaska. Located in the Alaskan interior, it encompasses Denali National Park (with North America's tallest mountain), covers more than 12,000 square miles (roughly the size of Maryland), and serves about 300 students in its three buildings. In 1991 the Alaska State Department of Education instituted standards-based learning, and in the last few years, Denali has implemented an Expeditionary Learning model in its schools.

The remoteness of students, faculty, and school buildings is something Pete Vraspir, director of technology for the district, has to consider on a daily basis. The district's three K-12 school buildings—Cantwell, Anderson, and Tri-Valley—are about 40 miles apart.

To serve students who can't attend school in one of these buildings, the Denali Peak correspondence school was developed, which includes about 300 students. Students in this program, along with all students in grades 6-12, are issued a laptop. Denali uses Apple as a vendor, with students currently using iBooks and PowerBooks; MacBooks will be rolled out next year. "The one-to-one program really addresses our ability to help our kids get information that they might not have normally been exposed to," Vraspir says.

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