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But the extra-durable 10-inch computers are intended for another purpose: Improve student acheivement by eventually making laptop technology available to every elementary school student in the state.
Port Royal Elementary is the first school in the Lowcountry to participate in the One Laptop Per Child/South Carolina initiative, a partnership between the S.C. Department of Education and the nonprofit Palmetto Project. Through the program, students receive school-issused laptops they can take home.
"It's about teaching kids how to use technology in creative and educational ways," said Stephen Skardon Jr., executive director of the Palmetto Project. "Everybody knows there's a technological divide in America ... and no one feels it more keenly than kids do."
The program was piloted last year in rural Marion School District 7, and since 2,300 laptops have been distributed at 14 schools across the state, said Mary Lee Ruzga of the state Education Department's Office of Innovation. About 100 Port Royal students will receive laptops this week.
The $200 computers are paid for mostly with donations from Greenville executive Erwin Maddrey and Charleston philanthropist Linda Ketner, as well as a $500,000 donation from Blue Cross Blue Shield.
There is no charge to students, although parents must attend one of several seminars offered on laptop use and care and sign user agreements.
The laptops were designed by One Laptop per Child, a nonprofit organization created to manufacture and distribute inexpensive computers to children in the world's poorest countries.
They are equipped with a camera, microphone, stereo speakers and screen that rotates into a tablet configuration.
According to the nonprofit, the laptops are spill-proof, rain-proof, dust-proof and drop-proof and students can use them to draw pictures, compose music, read and listen to books, collaborate on classroom projects and play games.
"It's so cool!" third-grader Emmanuel Bent said, as he and his classmates used the computers for the first time Monday. "It's a laptop, and it has a built-in camera and we can chat with each other."
His teacher, Janet Rutland, said students often write better when they use computers.
"I think they have a lot of interest in it," she said. "We're going to explore ways to incorporate the laptops into fun homework assignments. There's a lot of ways to make learning more interesting."
Schools were selected for the program by the state Department of Education based on student need and the capability of teachers and administrators to implement the program successfully. No other Beaufort County schools are slated to participate this year.
The initiative is unrelated to an project that began about 12 years ago in Beaufort County middle schools to help parents buy laptop computers for their sixth-graders, with the goal of making sure every student had access to technology at home. The project ended after participation dwindled and several participants did not repay loans taken out to buy the laptops.
