LAPTOPS SOLVE PROBLEM OF TEXTBOOK SHORTAGES

Laptops solve problemof textbook shortages
DALLAS (AP) -- This fall, all fifth- and sixth-graders at the suburban Forney Independent School District will be hauling all their textbooks around all the time. Oh, and each will also be carrying around 2,000 works of literature. The texts will be digital, stored on IBM laptop computers.
Mike Smith, superintendent of the fast-growing Forney district, sees technology solving a perennial problem -- a shortage of textbooks and monthslong delays getting new ones.
Forney is the nation's first district to sign up with IBM Corp. for notebooks loaded with content from software company Vital Source Technologies Inc. of Raleigh, N.C.
"If the students have all of Shakespeare's works loaded on their notebook, the school doesn't need to go out and buy all of those books," said Will Moore, an executive in IBM's education business.
School districts in Maine, Michigan and elsewhere already provide laptops to students, but prepackaged content is often limited.
Smith said he may buy laptops for other grades if this fall's experiment goes well, but added that price is a factor. Smith says Forney paid $1,000 each for 150 prepackaged laptops; IBM says the laptop alone normally costs $1,350.
"A child's set of textbooks costs $350," Smith said. "If they can get these notebooks down to $500, it gets cost-effective in a hurry."
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