Too poor for laptops? Try a Palm

If your district or state is balking at the cost of a mega-million-dolllar deal for laptops, perhaps you should think small - as in handhelds. That's what a school district in Kansas did recently, AP reports.

"The cost of laptops was out of our reach, but Palm's handhelds justified the cost," said Rita Lyon, executive director of technology for the Olathe (Kan.) Unified School District, in a statement. "We will continue to expand the program in order to provide either one-to-one access or classroom sets of handhelds to all four high schools in the district."

The Palms can be used to write compositions, create spreadsheets for math, science or other subjects, and to present projects or assignments.

In language arts, all the school's literature books are in eBook format so students can read them, highlight text, bookmark pages, take notes and look up words in the dictionary.

The district's special education programs also use the devices to help students practice independent living skills.