US schools ditching textbooks for iPads

It is hard to escape the iPad in daily news, and the latest adopters in the US are schools. According to reports, some schools are ditching textbooks while offering their students an iPad.

According to the news, students in Connecticut's suburban Brookfield High School and Burlington High School near Boston are starting the new year with ‘school issued' iPads, each of them pre loaded with electronic textbooks and online resources to help with research.

Similar articles have appeared on Kitguru in the past, showing that sales teams have had success with the iPad, as the representatives are able to close the sale during the test drive, before people have a chance to think carefully on a purchase, later in the showroom. Lawyers and industry professionals have also adopted the iPad, for storing up to the minute data and for powerpoint presentations, on the move.

The latest move in America to aid school children seems to be the first step in a much broader adoption by the education authorities. According to Apple officials, there are 600 districts in the US which are launching ‘one to one' programs. Every student will get an iPad to use throughout the school day. Almost two thirds of these have started in July, according to Apple sources.

According to school leaders, the iPads can be seen as a better long term investment that plain textbooks, although traditional books will still be used in some courses if ‘suitable electronic programs aren't yet available'. At a cost of $500 to $600 per iPad it may seem like a lot of money, but apparently Brookfield High in Connecticut spend more than this yearly on books, dictionaries, graphing calculators and other accessories.

There are also benefits for children with poor eyesight and learning disabilities, as pictures can often speak better than plain text.

Kitguru says: Will this ever happen in the UK?

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