From Textbooks to Tech Books – No more pencils, no more books …

Empire High School in Vail, Ariz., is first in the state to replace books with laptops.

No more pencils, no more books …

You no doubt recall the rest of the old schoolyard rhyme, but you probably never imagined you’d see the day when there would be no more books in classrooms, at least not the kind made of paper.

In one pioneering Arizona high school, students have traded their textbooks for iBooks.

Construction of Empire High School in Vail, Ariz., began Sept. 27, 2004, and it opened its doors for the first time on July 22, 2005. The school is the state’s first all-wireless facility to hand out laptops to incoming freshmen, all 350 of whom received an Apple iBook.

"Each new group of freshmen will receive new laptops," said Cindy Lee, principal of Empire High School. "The plan is for each student to use the same laptop for four years."

November 2005 By Sue Owens Wright

Full Story: http://www.govtech.net/magazine/story.php?id=97162