Check out this article in the New York Times about the Munster School System in Indiana and their complete textbook/laptop transformation. In the words of a seventh grader:
“With a textbook, you can only read what’s on the pages — here you can click on things and watch videos,” said Patrick Wu, a seventh grader. “It’s more fun to use a keyboard than a pencil. And my grades are better because I’m focusing more.”
Or how about the words of the District Director of Instruction and Assessment:
Ms. Stafford, 62, has long planned to retire in 2013, and noted in an interview that it would have been far easier for her, and many others in Munster, to stay with print textbooks for another few years. But when Indiana made multimedia an option, she felt she had no other. “This wasn’t a technology initiative — this was a curriculum initiative,” Ms. Stafford said. “The best programs out there needed the technology required to implement it. It was time.”
No offense Ms. Stafford, but I'm glad to see old dogs (like us) can learn new tricks. You go girl.
You can read the whole piece at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/education/19textbooks.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&emc=eta1
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