The Craven County Schools of New Bern, North Carolina, have expanded their one-to-one computer program to include more grades. The program began a year ago at five campuses and the results were positive — including the state's highest accountability testing rating earned by Craven Early College where 50 freshmen worked one-to-one with the computers. As a result of the pilot's success, the district felt positive about expanding to 15 campuses and the two early college centers this year.

Netbooks are being used by the students, in class, for research and working on homework assignments. "We're not teaching technology for technology's sake. We're teaching curriculum," said Wayne Beasley, the district's special assistant to the superintendent for information technology.

Larry Moser became district superintendent two years ago and has been working on his plan to bring more technology to the district. "I wanted to get as much technology, particularly laptops, in the hands of as many students as we could, as well as some personnel," he said.

Teachers attended a summer institute to receive special training to prepare for the computers in their classroom and concentrated on taking care of the netbooks, the students, and the curriculum. The district is using a variety of funding sources to buy the computers. Along with their budgeted technology funds, they have been helped by private civic groups, businesses and the local Rotary Club.

Source: Craven Schools Keeping Up with Technology, The Sun Journal.