There is a high school in White Plains, New York (about a one hour drive from here) which no longer uses PRINTED textbooks. It is Archbishop Stepinac High School, and starting this school year, every student will receive an iPad and nobody will have to lug around a heavy book bag or back pack. (One student weighed his textbooks last year: 35 pounds!) All textbooks will be replaced by a "digital library" which can be accessed - in school or from home, or anywhere there is wi-fi - Starbucks, anyone? - on any internet-connected tablet or laptop. At Stepinac, this means that students can get to all 40 textbooks which the school uses as well as note-taking, highlighting, on-line dictionaries and other features. It'll be good for the environment and students' backs. All students will be better prepared for college and many careers because they will be that much more tech-savvy. The textbooks will be interactive and will be constantly updated during the course of a year. Students will alwyas have the latest information. The head of the school predicts that "this will sweep the country."
Imagine reading a social studies textbook and suddenly listening to and watching President Kennedy delivering his speech about the Cuban Missile Crisis or being sent by a math teacher to a link for a problem with the teacher's notes attached. This school will even have a web site at which students will be able to submit essays to be graded for grammar and sentence structure as well as for repeating ideas. This site will even suggest re-writes. A student can even have novels and plays read to him or her.
Do YOU want this for your school? Will it improve how you are doing? Do YOU think it will better prepare you for your working life? Do you see any disadvantages to replacing textbooks or is it a win-win situation? Let us know what you think. Click on "Comments" above and put down your ideas. Explain whether you would look forward to these changes in the high school of the future. It looks as if the future isn't that far away.
Imagine reading a social studies textbook and suddenly listening to and watching President Kennedy delivering his speech about the Cuban Missile Crisis or being sent by a math teacher to a link for a problem with the teacher's notes attached. This school will even have a web site at which students will be able to submit essays to be graded for grammar and sentence structure as well as for repeating ideas. This site will even suggest re-writes. A student can even have novels and plays read to him or her.
Do YOU want this for your school? Will it improve how you are doing? Do YOU think it will better prepare you for your working life? Do you see any disadvantages to replacing textbooks or is it a win-win situation? Let us know what you think. Click on "Comments" above and put down your ideas. Explain whether you would look forward to these changes in the high school of the future. It looks as if the future isn't that far away.
