When it was first announced that the Greenwood-Leflore School District was seeking a grant to provide all of its 5,000 students with a computer tablet, it seemed improbable — given the million-dollar price tag — that it would happen.
But it has. That’s a real coup for the consolidated school district now being formed and its recently hired superintendent, Dr. Mary Brown.
The grant, from the telecommunication company T-Mobile, will pay for every student to have a Chromebook to use for school work and probably other age-appropriate surfing on the Internet. It will also come equipped with a hotspot, a device that can connect the Chromebook to the Internet if the student’s family does not have Wi-Fi service at home.
Although we’re unsure why students in kindergarten and the lowest grades need this technology, the Chromebooks should be a useful tool for middle school on up. The challenge for school officials will be teaching students how to take care of them, since the idea is to hand these down from year to year, just like textbooks.
