WILSON -- At Hunt High School, pens and paper are out while touchpads and computer screens are in. This week, all 1,280 students at Hunt High School are getting free laptop computers. It's through North Carolina's 1:1 Learning Collaborative.

Several Learn and Earn schools across the state have laptop computers available for students. But Hunt High School is the largest school to assign every student their own laptop for the year.

“I think it's really cool because it's going to help me a lot in school,” said Keiana Love, a sophomore at Hunt High School. She was issued her laptop Wednesday morning, after going through an 1.5-hour training class.

Administrators say the personal computers will not only change how students learn in the classroom, but also how teachers teach.

“It's going to change because we don't have to write notes all the time,” Love explained. “We can just type it up and attach it to our printer and print it out when we get home. We can send our homework through emails to our teacher, so it will be a lot easier.”

“There are a lot of things we're going to be able to look up online that we wouldn't have been able to before,” said Lisa Pierce, a civics and economics teacher. “They can actually do assignments in class on the computer, and send it directly to my computer. We also have other programs we'll be using which will actually grade many of the assignments for us, which will be easier on us.”

“It's going to make the class more interesting for the kids because they're going to be actively learning,” said Angie London, an English teacher. “The children are actually doing the teaching and the learning themselves and digging for it. They're going to be actively involved. And when they're actively involved, it's so much better.”

Even with laptops at their fingertips, students can’t just randomly surf the internet or check email in the middle of class. Through a special program, teachers can keep a close eye on every computer screen.

“We have a program where we can look on our computers and see what's on all of their computers,” explained London. “We can look and say, ‘You’re supposed to be on this website, but you're checking your email.’ We can automatically lock their computers and send them a message, ‘Get back to work.’”

The laptop program cost $3 million. It was funded by SAS Corporation, the Golden LEAF Foundation, and state money. The only cost to students is an annual insurance fee of $25.

Students will not keep the laptops over the summer, but the school will re-issue them the same laptop every year until they graduate.