Lyon College Plans Student Laptop Rollout

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 11/06/08

Lyon College has gone public with plans to lease and deploy about 550 Lenovo ThinkPad notebook PCs over the next three years. The college recently finished rolling out 200 ThinkPad R61 notebooks to its freshman class and faculty for the 2008-2009 school year. The Batesville, AR college has 500 students.

"Part of providing students a top-notch education starts with leveling the playing field by giving them the technology tools they need to enrich their learning and to prepare for life beyond the classroom," said Charles Neal, director, information services. "The Lenovo ThinkPad notebooks equip them with the latest technologies in wireless connectivity, processing performance and battery life while at the same time, the reliability and durability that are important in running a one-to-one college notebook program."

Students use their ThinkPad notebooks to connect to the college's wi-fi network for research and assignments. The notebooks are also part of the Lyon Experience program, featuring college-supported overseas travel and an experiential transcript that documents accomplishments outside of the classroom. The college provides technical and hardware support and maintains software updates.