Previously we reported that Clearwater High School will ditch textbooks for all students.
Now, Resource Shelf is carrying an interview with the principal of that school:
So, initially we were looking at computers. But we realized quickly that computers were way too expensive. Yeah, you could find one for $200 or $300. But by the time you put all the software on it, get the wireless network and all the pieces you need, you were at $1,000 a piece. So it was not cost effective. There was no way you could do anything like that. So we started looking at what were the things we really wanted. We wanted to be able to put textbook comments. That was one piece. Another piece was that we wanted kids to be able to have some internet capability. We don’t necessarily need color pictures and flash and video and that kind of stuff. But we wanted them to get basic information so that if they’re doing a research paper, they can find it. We also wanted them to be able to look up grades and attendance and be able to send messages back and forth to the teachers.
So, looking at all this, we realized that many of the e-readers have those capabilities. One of the ones we’re still looking at is the Kindle. We’re still in negotiation with them to determine the price and if they aren’t going to give us the best price, we’re also looking at the Sony e-reader and The Nook at this point as well. One of the pieces that the Kindle has that’s huge is the internet capability. And not only is it wireless but there’s no need to connect any wi-fi system. It uses its own Whispernet, which is a 3G network. So the books are automatically placed on there through that Whispernet technology. The kids can look up internet, it’s a mobile internet, so they can look it up and find information that way. Teachers now, if they want to give an assignment to their class for homework to look something up, every single one of their kids can do it. Previously, that wasn’t the case. If they gave a research paper and said find some information on the internet, they’d have to find another way to do it. Possibly go to the library, a friend’s house. Now, all the kids have internet.
