Seventeen-year-old Josh Woodyard gazes at a real-time video of himself and declares, “Dude, watch my eyebrows.” Other students explore iTunes or work on pages for the yearbook, using their newly issued computers.

The Trent Independent School District hopes that its new, $320,000 laptop program will improve scores on the state’s standardized tests. All 206 students in this tiny PK-12 school district are getting laptops for school and home use. Local reporting for the area known as “Big Country” notes that nearby districts working on similar programs include Ballinger, Big Spring, Brownwood, Coleman, Loraine and Roscoe.

Coleman High School, for example, plans to provide each high school student with a laptop beginning the second semester in 2009. That will be funded through a Vision 20/20 grant, which allowed the district to follow up on an eighth grade program funded through the state’s Technology Immersion Pilot (TIP) program. Both programs began with professional development.

Source: Abilene Reporter News, Trent students issued laptop computers in $320,000 initiative