“‘No more pencils, no more books’ could become more than a summertime anthem in Beachwood Middle School, which will be among the first in the nation to equip every student and teacher with a laptop computer. ‘We are paving the way for how education is going to change over the next few years and in the future,’ said Edward Bernetich, principal of the new school,” reports Jesse Tinsley for The Cleveland Plain Dealer.

“The 240 students and 40 teachers each will get an Apple iBook laptop computer for class- related use at home and school. Virtual, paperless education, when students are able to access text books online, may not be too far in the future, he said. Last month the district leased the iMacs [sic - should read iBooks] for four years. Each computer costs about $1,000. The district spent $300,000 of its $700,000 technology budget to start the program,” Tinsley reports.

Tinsley reports, “Apple computers were perfect, Bernetich said, because ‘Apple seems to be more user- friendly for our kids. A lot of the programs they have seem to work better with some of the projects we are working on in our in our art and technology classes.’”

Full article here.