Kansas school district buys Palm devices

SUNNYVALE, Calif. --Palm Inc. said Monday the Olathe Unified School District in Olathe, Kan., bought 2,300 Palm TX handheld devices and as many keyboards for its high schools, nearly doubling the district's investment in Palm's handhelds.

Financial terms weren't disclosed. The TX retails for $299, according to Palm's Web site.

"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 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 district bought the devices under Palm's Education Purchase Plan.

While some students are given 24-hour access to the handhelds, others will use classroom sets. Lyon said the students mainly use Palms 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.

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