Posted on 07/11/2005 8:53:06 AM PDT by freepatriot32
TUCSON, Ariz. (July 11) - A high school in Vail will become the state's first all-wireless, all-laptop public school this fall. The 350 students at the school will not have traditional textbooks. Instead, they will use electronic and online articles as part of more traditional teacher lesson plans.
Vail Unified School District's decision to go with an all-electronic school is rare, experts say. Often, cost, insecurity, ignorance and institutional constraints prevent schools from making the leap away from paper.
''The efforts are very sporadic,'' said Mark Schneiderman, director of education policy for the Software and Information Industry Association. ''A minority of communities are doing a good or very good job, but a large number are just not there on a number of levels.''
Calvin Baker, superintendent of Vail Unified School District, said the move to electronic materials gets teachers away from the habit of simply marching through a textbook each year.
He noted that the AIMS test now makes the state standards the curriculum, not textbooks. Arizona students will soon need to pass Arizona's Instrument to Measure Standards to graduate from high school.
But the move to laptops is not cheap. The laptops cost $850 each, and the district will hand them to 350 students for the entire year. The fast-growing district hopes to have 750 students at the high school eventually.
A set of textbooks runs about $500 to $600, Baker said.
It's not clear how the change to laptops will work, he conceded.
''I'm sure there are going to be some adjustments. But we visited other schools using laptops. And at the schools with laptops, students were just more engaged than at non-laptop schools,'' he said.
Heheh. And that's for science class, too :)
We always had to buy our book covers. Paper bags weren't allowed. Actually, I think they'll have to use that "recycled" plastic stuff. :)
probably use Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia,
"yes sir, even YOU can re-write history"
hehehehehe:)
Yeah, engaged with music downloads, instant messenger, chat rooms, etc.
That's the way it is in at least some parts of England.
There has been thought to putting the end-of-year tests all on computer, but to do it right now would be inefficient with everyone having to share one computer lab. While the tests can be done in three or four days now, in the initial pilot test, it took the school 3 MONTHS to complete the tests. There are too many other factors to go into here as well.
Printed books have superior resolution to laptop screens.
Amen to that and people who read them have superior reading skills.
This ignores the more important question: Will they have stickers on each laptop declaring that evolution "is a theory only.
Hehe. I love those evolution threads. They're pretty entertaining.
that said albert einstien was still alive
You mean he isn't??? I thought he was living with Elvis and Marilyn Monroe. I know for a fact that Billy the Kid and Butch Cassidy were seen in the Arizona desert.
the textbooks suck, which is one reason we wrote "A Patriot's History of the United States," but
Where do you get a copy of that???
Yeah, they were there doing that Minuteman thing a few months ago.
and porno.
Sheesh. Just how old are you? :-)
I agree. I do think some limited use is fine. In my school, they have to start learning typing by the third grade and get tested on it beginning if fifth I believe. BUT overdependence is wrong. I have a huge website for my students with tons of curriculum activities, but I don't emphasize it. Reading skills improve when one enjoys reading the printed word.
Instead of the dog ate my homework, it will be the computer lost my homework.
SHHHHH, that was supposed to be a secret. Paul Revere was down there too. Actually, where are Davy Crockett and Sam Bowie when you need them?
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1595230017/qid=1092168718/sr=1-5/ref=sr_1_5/002-6996606-5008816?v=glance&s=books
We also have a website, www.patriotshistoryusa.com for home-school teachers or others using the book for instruction to homeschoolers or in the classroom.
The reading/cricial reading skills among my freshmen in college has dropped MARKEDLY in the last 10 years---all due to the internet, I fear.
Vegas?
VERY 1984.
Makes revising history on the fly so much easier.
I wonder if the blocking sofware will prevent reading about things like "God"
I wonder if Mom and Dad will have the ability to preview the materials same as a school book.
Thanks!!! I'll get it. That kind of stuff is in our curriculum and I have been looking for a good source.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.