The demise of the dead-tree edition textbook may finally be upon us – at least in Arizona anyway. Empire High School in Arizona is the first public school in the United States to replace textbooks with their digital equivalent – Apple iBooks. According to a story in the Associated Press, the school will be issuing iBooks to all 340 students in lieu of textbooks. No word yet on what to do with all those highlighters they purchased last year.
School officials believe the electronic materials will get students more engaged in learning. Empire High, which opened for the first time this year, was designed specifically to have a textbook-free environment.
“We’ve always been pretty aggressive in use of technology and we have a history of taking risks,” said Calvin Baker, superintendent of the Vail Unified School District, which has 7,000 students outside of Tucson.
The demise of the dead-tree edition textbook may finally be upon us – at least in Arizona anyway. Empire High School in Arizona is the first public school in the United States to replace textbooks with their digital equivalent – Apple iBooks. According to a story in the Associated Press, the school will be issuing iBooks to all 340 students in lieu of textbooks. No word yet on what to do with all those highlighters they purchased last year.
School officials believe the electronic materials will get students more engaged in learning. Empire High, which opened for the first time this year, was designed specifically to have a textbook-free environment.
“We’ve always been pretty aggressive in use of technology and we have a history of taking risks,” said Calvin Baker, superintendent of the Vail Unified School District, which has 7,000 students outside of Tucson.
