Over 500 tablets were distributed to university students today. It's a follow up on a promise that Prime Minister Dean Barrow made in his New Year's Address. Today - just in time for municipal elections - a ceremony was held at the UB Gymnasium in Belmopan to hand out the first set of ASUS tablets. The gym was packed with eager students and I spoke with some of them today about their new gadgets.

Patrick Faber, Minister of Education
"It's not necessarily only that we wish for you to use it as a tool for your education advances, it is especially to be used however to bridge the digital divide to make sure that those of you who are still outside the loop, in terms of the use of the technology."

Courtney Weatherburne Reporting
In order to bridge that divide, university students were each given an ASUS tablet today.

Hundreds of students waited patiently in line with their ID's and application forms to get their device.

When they did, some began to initialize their devices to browse through some of the features.

Of course, one feature is the easy access to social media. And one wonders, will that easy access overshadow the academic use of the tablet?

According to these students, balance is key.

Jamira Serano, UB Student, English Major
"I am an English student and we have a lot of text to read and the tablet is perfect for that because then we can download the text and so forth and we can use the tablet to read. It is a device whereby we can use it for the different uses such as school work and also socializing and contacting. It's a networking device. We are adults and we can balance the uses of the device."

Kayla Jones, UB Student, English Major
"It's a great opportunity for me to use the net and to also research for my papers because English students of course have to write a lot. So, it's an awesome opportunity and I really thank the government of Belize for that."

Mark Wallace, UB Student, Science Major
"I am taking 5 subjects currently and all the lecturers, they provide us with electronic copies of their PowerPoints and it's a lot easier to actually go through it electronically than to have physically print it and waste paper, so it will help with studying, it will help with making notes. Even if we didn't have the tablet, we would still have to find the balance, so it's up to you as an individual to use it for something beneficial."

Deandre Flowers, UB Student, Business Major
"Just like laptops, the tablet is more convenient to carry about at school. If I have a quiz to do online, it would be easier to access and it is also use to connect to your friends."

And while the students have to find a balance between connecting with friends and completing school work, the administration needs to adjust its policies and teaching strategies to accommodate these gadgets.

Dr. Wilma Wright, Provost, UB
"We will now have to decide on policies that we would need to have and will also have to look at our teaching and learning methodology to access this. It will impact a lot areas, because they will have access to eBooks, so we have our book store that will have to sort of re-invent and see how we will now work with our bookstore."

Over 9,000 tablets will be distributed to tertiary level students.