“Webb School, a private school in Knoxville, TN is requiring all fourth through 12th grade students to have an iPad for classes next year,” CNN reports. “A student who doesn’t already own one can lease one.”
CNN reports, ” Jim Manikas, technology director at the school, says the school wants the iPad to replace textbooks over time.”
Full article here.
[Attribution: 9 to 5 Mac. Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Dan K.” and “Arline M.” for the heads up.]
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In the olden days, students would give apples to the teacher. Now the students just keep their Apples!
The revolution in textbooks is here, and it will be swift.
If nothing else it will save the kids from carrying around those ridiculously heavy backpacks.
Wait…. won’t someone think of the chiropractors?!?!
“The iPad took our jobs!”
@ChrissyOne:
Completely agree. The functionality that the iPad will bring to the textbook world (search, notes, voice recording, etc) will revolutionize the classroom experience.
Wow. And I was aggravated by having to buy the schools specific gym uniform.
@ Manbearpig:
I have just opened my new office, I am an iPadopractor. I assist in swiping and pinch to zoom injuries.
Call me.
IQuack
“… the school wants the iPad to replace textbooks over time.”
You are going to see a lot of this.
Smart move!
iPad AAPL!
What amazes me are the school districts that still try to buy PC’s in droves which prepares kids for how business was done in the last decade.
Every year my kids’ backpacks are destroyed from carrying around 20-30lbs of textbooks every day. An iPad makes more sense – you can update the info sooner, you can use more media centric content to get your message across, and you can provide a more interactive environment with the content.
There are still very good reasons why a PC and even better reasons to buy a Mac. But for general education purposes, the iPad makes the most sense.
Now it’s just going to take time for the textbooks to catch up in sophistication and figure out how to continue to rake in a ton of cash by charging every year for textbooks
Teacher by trade and avocation here–
@theLedger: Bullseye. I have been quietly refusing to teach elementary kids powerpoint for several years on the grounds that if they graduate college and Office is still dominant, the idiocracy will have won anyway. Unfortunately, my district is one of those you describe. Our IT is run by the former food services manager. Not making it up.
iPads make far more economic sense in both the short and long term, practically guaranteeing it won’t happen until long after I retire.
@jdoc: “The functionality that the iPad will bring to the textbook world (search, notes, voice recording, etc) will revolutionize the classroom experience.”
One big advantage is that pupils will only be able to look at one thing at a time. A big advantage with respect to laptops, where they could be watching non-class contents easily and keep a “boss”-window handy for when the teacher strolls in their direction.
I’m pretty certain the iHater argument will be that the school should have bought Windows netbooks for half the price of those iPads because the Windows netbook can do so much more and it has a keyboard and supports Adobe Flash. Any iHater will insist that Apple iPads are too expensive for parents in a weak economy. Those precious students should at least have a Windows tablet so they can use a stylus to take notes.
I love the idea of the iPad replacing textbooks, and it makes perfect sense.
The only issue is with the price of the eTextBooks at this point. For many college options, the pricing is way too high, considering the reduction in cost to produce the media, and the inability for the student to sell back a physical book.
I realize that there is significant cost involved in creating the eBook versions of large volumes, but there should be some consideration for future long term sales.
I used to live in Knoxville. Believe me, if parents can afford to send their children to Webb, they can definitely afford to buy them iPads (if they haven’t already). It will be no financial hardship for THOSE parents.
Most kids get very exercise as it is right now. That extra 20 to 30 lbs was a godsend. Now the little brats will be carrying just 1.5 lbs.
And, there are people reading this that think the iPad’s 1.5 lbs is still too much.
What a generation of slobs we are raising.
I can hear the school PA now after the teacher asks, “Computer, locate Johnny Doe?” The PA replies, “Johnny Doe is in the cafeteria.”
@Big Al
Haven’t you seen iPad commercials? No slobs there!
I think the concept of a textbook may be on the way out the door. The focus must be the subject matter. With the ability to develop tools (apps) that enable exploration and understanding of a topic, why have a large, all inclusive tome addressing the full gamut of topics, but rather a series of apps and exercises that build knowledge individually. There would be no need to get an upgraded presentation for an area of study that was well covered by existing tools, just new modules for changed areas (like the discovery of dinosaur saddles and such, or the expungement of references to Appomattox Courthouse and the events that happened there).
The iPad is going to change the world in ways we don’t yet imagine.