Central Unified School District gives Asus tablets to students

Fresno, Calif. -- Summer has come to an end for some students already in Fresno. Wednesday was the first day of school at Central Unified.

Students at Harvest Elementary School lined up to receive brand new Asus tablets. In the classroom, the kids spend their first day of school checking out some of the latest learning apps and getting familiar with the technology.

The 4G devices were unveiled for all 16,000 students who are part of Central Unified. Today, local and federal officials including state school superintendent Tom Torlakson plus Atari and Brainrush founder Nolan Bushnell, were excited to show off the cutting edge technology.

"The power to connect to the rest of the world," said Torlakson. "It fits with common core, it fits with all of our learning to the real world."

"This school is going to have outcomes at the end of this school year that will be one maybe two standard deviations above where it would have been otherwise," said Bushnell. "That's massive!"

The more than $6 million investment has been in the works for five years. Parents have the option of purchasing a $15 insurance plan for the tablets. That plan covers the cost of repairs and replacement if something were to happen to the device.

Central Unified Superintendent Michael Berg says the tablets will help close a communication gap in the district.

"We know 35% of our households don't have internet and so we're able now through the tablets to bring 4G to each tablet and each student bring the tablet home with them and so we've now closed the digital divide at Central Unified by rolling this out," said Berg.

As students headed to class on their first day back-many knew about the tablets and were excited to start using them. The tablets are loaded with educational apps with the goal of making learning fun.

"I'm excited to come back to school," said Tiffany Sandoval. "It's very fun especially with the new technology we're getting with the tablets and it's fun to be back at school."

Students in third grade and older will be able to take the device home and then they'll give them back at the end of the year. This is the first school district in California to give every single student a tablet.