Rowan-Salisbury School System Superintendent Dr. Judy Grissom read the research on one-to-one learning and was convinced that students and teachers of North Rowan High School should benefit from it. But rather than building the program around laptops as so many one-to-one initiatives have done in recent years, this North Carolina district decided to try something new: in April, every one of the 222-member freshman class of North Rowan High School received a new iPod Touch.

Although many people think only of music when they hear iPods, each iPod that the Rowan-Salisbury district purchased came equipped with 50 applications, including such documents and references as the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, SAT preparation materials and the complete works of Shakespeare. Students who have trouble with reading can learn by listening on their iPods. They can even — with the approval of teachers – play the anagram game "Word Warp," on their iPods between lessons.

Attendance is up and tardiness is down since the iPods arrived. "I like the iPod because it's right in your pocket," says freshman Michael Craig. "You don't have to go find a book. Just look it right up."

As popular as they are, the iPods do not substitute entirely for computers. The school district also invested in MacBook laptops for student use. "We didn't want the students to just have the iPods," Phil Hardin, the school system's executive director of technology, explained. "That way, they would just be spectators. By adding the MacBooks, they can learn and then demonstrate that learning. They own the knowledge. Research says kids in the Millennial Age want to create."

Funded partly by grants and partly locally, the hardware adoption was preceded by months of exploration and preparation. A wireless network was installed and firewalled; it was designed not only to keep out intruders, but also to limit the students' access solely to authorized sites. Before the iPods were distributed, parents agreed to pay the $300 cost for any lost units.

The school district plans to continue the program, outfitting each new freshman class with iPods which they will carry with them until graduation. In this way, the entire student body will be involved in highly portable one-to-one computing and learning within four years.

Source: Salisburypost.com, Students getting creative with iPod touch at North Rowan High, by Maggie Blackwell