A rural Arkansas school district hopes to turn school buses into classrooms by providing students with iPods and laptops. Unlike Michigan’s dubious one iPod per child program, Arkansas’s Aspirnaut Initiative is highly targeted and has a clearly defined set of goals. The Sheridan school district in Arkansas is using technology to add academic value to the three-hour commute endured daily by students from neighboring rural communities. Originally conceived by Vanderbilt University biochemist Bill Hudson, Arkansas’s Aspirnaut Initiative brings laptops, iPods, and wireless Internet to school buses in an effort to promote science education.

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