Arizona school will not use textbooks

**Iria** · Jul 11, 2005, 11:52 AM

TUCSON, Ariz. -- 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."

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Read More / Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer

YAYitsAndrew · Jul 11, 2005, 01:50 PM

ROFL.

If I had a laptop in high school I wouldn't be reading online wireless textbooks I'd be fragging my friends in another class.

Unless those are tablet pcs, note taking is going to die or people are going to carry around notebooks anyway. My tech school gives (read: hides cost in tuition) a laptop to incoming freshmen. The first week everyone has theirs out in class with notepad or something open typing away. Then everyone starts to wonder where the integral symbol is in ms word. Or how they can quickly draw that cell diagram from biology. The intrepid start taking notes in mspaint but then typing is a chore. After the first month everyone is back to ti-83s and college-rule looseleaf. The only people still using their laptops in class are chatting on the internet or playing games. They're gone next semester.

The problem with learning isn't how we're conveying the knowledge. It's the social outlook on learning. In america that means not doing your work is cool and coming up with excuses is accepted. Schools have become so accepting of this attitude that they'll pass people who deserve to stay just to keep them moving so they won't bring down any school statistics. My roommate's brother teaches english in china and he said it's unreal how eager everyone is to learn.

daRk_heLmet · Jul 11, 2005, 04:18 PM

there go 350 impotent students with their balls fried :/

I personally think this is bringing the already crapped out education system further down the hill.

When you take notes, you in youe handwriting can learn it faster by looking at it. Taking notes is like 1/2 the learning done.

Same goes for books, I mean I read books in the [color=red]?[/color][color=red]?[/color][color=red]?[/color][color=red]?[/color]ter, I wont want to carry a [color=red]?[/color][color=red]?[/color][color=red]?[/color][color=red]?[/color]ing laptop in there, specially when there is steam coming out of the shower with hot water running.

The_Neon_Cowboy · Jul 11, 2005, 04:35 PM

So they get to take those laptops home? Use them for thier home work etc? I don't think so.
I'm pro textbook in this case

toddsmack2k · Jul 11, 2005, 04:42 PM

I think Laptops can have a role in the classroom but they are a long ways off in completely replacing pencil and paper.

CDsDontBurn · Jul 11, 2005, 09:24 PM

it is said that computers are to make us the paperless society. small moves like that are the footsteps in doing so. however, i do not believe that they should hand them out to students; unless the students (or the student's parents rather) had payed for the laptops (in full or partial payment).

I'm not saying that students shouldn't have their own laptop to use at school, i think it's great, but to use in school to read a book? You'll be seeing alot of "copy and paste" when it comes to book reports