State to Experiment with Digital and Wireless Textbooks
The State Superintendent of Public Instruction is expected to announce this morning an initiative to explore wireless technology and digital textbooks in Virginia schools. Charles Fishburne has more in this Science Matters Report.
The announcement and demonstration will come at ten this morning in far-away Henry County in Southwest Virginia, where fourth-grade and seventh-grade students will demonstrate how Apple iPads could take the place of traditional history books.
Students in four school divisions, Arlington County, Henry County, Newport News and Pulaski County are participating in the pilot, which is designed to explore the potential of wireless technology and digital textbooks to enhance teaching and learning. The initiative is supported by money from the Governor’s Productivity Investment Fund and from vendors who will supply text, software and support.
America spends between eight and fifteen billion a year for textbooks and with information on the net fresher, faster and often free, a recent New York Times article has predicted the days of conventional textbooks could be numbered. In Virginia this fall, the experiment has apparently begun.
Charles Fishburne, WCVE News
Post new comment