A new project worth nearly $10 million will fund a 1-to-1 technology effort in eight U.S. middle schools, providing students with 24-7 Internet access via a data plan for their tablets—while also providing research on the effectiveness of the implementation, and the devices used.

The effort, supported through a partnership between the Verizon Foundation and Digital Promise, is meant to produce findings to guide other schools and districts trying to make large-scale digitial conversions, which have proven problematic in some K-12 systems.

More than 4,500 students and 350 educators will be given either an iPad or Samsung Galaxy tablet, with the ability to use them at home, under the two-year project funded by the Verizon Foundation.