“Cobb County [Georgia] wants to spend nearly $70 million for 63,000 students and teachers to get state-of-the-art Apple laptop computers, complete with Microsoft Word and iTunes. After months of negotiations, Superintendent Joseph Redden announced the cost and scope of a potential deal with Apple Computer. If the school board approves the first phase of the four-year, $69.9 million proposal, the first iBook G4 laptops would be distributed this spring,” Kristina Torres reports for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“By fall, four high schools would be outfitted as demonstration sites. Within a year, high schoolers could be working with a computer that, at 5 pounds, weighs less than most textbooks. Within three years, each of Cobb’s teachers and middle and high school students could have a laptop,” Torres reports. “The iBooks would come with Apple’s latest operating system, plus Microsoft Office and wireless capability. Software would include Apple’s iLife, which could be used to make digital movies, photos and music for school projects through programs like iTunes and GarageBand. The iBooks would be compatible with the school system’s existing PCs.”
“‘The kinds of things the students will be using out in the work force today, they’ll be using in our schools,’ said Deputy Superintendent Donald Beers. Part of the cost goes to build a wireless network for schools countywide,” Torres reports. “If fully implemented, it would be one of the largest school laptop programs in the country.”
Full article here.
