It may be a laptop instead of a textbook tucked under the arms of some Custer High School students soon.

Their school is one of 15 that have been selected to participate in South Dakota's Classroom Connections for 2008-09, a scaled-down version of Gov. Mike Rounds' third year of the one-to-one laptop initiative.

The program for 2008-09 is expected to cost the state $770,000. Funding for the full program, estimated at $2.9 million, was cut during the 2008 legislative session. Expenses for adding the 15 new schools will be paid using funds from a settlement with Citibank.

Some legislators recently criticized the governor for going ahead with a program they didn't see as a priority and decided not to fund.

About 1,500 high school students will receive laptops next year, 290 of them at Custer High School. The addition brings the total number of districts participating to 56 and the number of students to about 11,000. Custer has the largest enrollment of the 15 schools selected this round; the rest are on the east side of the state.

Rounds said it is no longer a question of "if" students will learn with laptops, but when.

"Here in South Dakota, the K-12 laptop initiative will help to prepare students for a world in which access to information and technology is absolutely critical to economic health," he said in a prepared statement.

Custer School District superintendent Tim Creal agreed. The district applied for the grant last year but was not selected. Even if it hadn't been chosen this year, the district would have found a way to pay for the laptops, he said.

"They are a different kind of student now," he said. "These students are digital natives; everything they do is technology-based. … It's important to pay attention to the way students learn best."

The evidence, he said while laughing, is that they can text-message, run an iPod, work on the computer and talk on the phone - all at the same time.

"If we don't teach them in a method most effective for them, we're going to lose them," he said.

Supporters of laptops in the classroom agree, but critics have said the technology is not always reliable and requires frequent technical service and that it isn't good for students to be staring at a computer screen all day.

Creal said many teachers have already gone to paperless classrooms.

"This is just another tool, another opportunity to learn," he said.

The program is funded for three years, but the laptops will stay even if funding is not there from the state after that, he said.

"I believe we'll continue it, regardless," Creal said. "Once you give them laptops, you can't take them away."

More so, after teachers are trained about how to integrate the technology into their classrooms, "You can't go back." He likened it to using a tractor in a field and then going back to a horse.

Classroom Connections provides incentive money to districts to buy laptops for their high school students. The state provides matching funds - $1 for every $2 invested by the local school district - to buy laptops for every student in grades 9-12. Districts pay $1,250 per computer. That cost covers the initial investment of hardware, software and warranties and the training of teachers and technology coordinators in the schools.

The state Department of Education reported that districts were selected based on readiness or ability to implement the project, foresight in terms of how the school district will use the laptops, technical support and capability and community buy-in.

Contact Kayla Gahagan at 394-8410 or kayla.gahagan@rapidcityjournal.com .