Many American secondary schools equip students with ipads to replace traditional textbooks

Sina Science and technology news Beijing time September 4 morning, the United States, many public schools in the new semester will be equipped with the ipad, and gradually replace the traditional textbooks, the move has been praised by many educational experts. Rich online resources for new students in Brooklyn's high school in the suburbs of West Connecticut State, a heavy schoolbag will be a history and will be replaced by a powerful ipad tablet computer.　　Meanwhile, in the Burlington Middle School near Boston, students will soon usher in a new school year, when they will also have a college-allotted ipad, each with a large library of electronic materials and other online resources. Since Apple launched its ipad in the spring of 2010, the tablet has been quickly welcomed by many universities in the United States, and from this fall, many of America's public schools will join them, abandoning traditional textbooks and switching to lightweight tablets.　　Apple executives say they have heard that more than 600 school districts across the United States have launched a "one-to-one" project under which at least one class of students will be equipped with an ipad, which every student can use during the course of the class. According to Apple, nearly two-thirds of the school districts have been implementing this practice since July. American schools also often announce new plans to replace traditional textbooks with electronic textbooks. In Wednesday, Kentucky State Education Commissioner and local education officer in Woodford County said that the Woodford County Middle School would become the state's first public secondary school to equip every student with an ipad.　　There are 1250 students in the secondary school. Better long-term investment in Burlington Middle School in the suburbs of Boston, Patrick Larkin, the headmaster, said that in the long run, the 500-dollar ipad is a better investment than a textbook.　　But he also pointed out that if there is no suitable electronic tutorials available, Burlington Secondary Schools will continue to use traditional textbooks in some teaching activities. "I don't want to generalize because I don't want to offend people who are trying to develop such resources," Larkin said of the textbook. But the fact that they are out of print at the moment is outdated, not to mention it when sent to the students. More importantly, the ipad will give our students a chance to use more relevant materials. "This trend is not limited to wealthy suburban districts in the United States. New York City, Chicago and many other urban school districts are also buying ipads in droves. Depending on the accessories purchased and the service plan, the cost of the ipad is generally between 500 and 600 dollars.　　According to Brookfield Middle School, the annual cost of teaching the ipad is lower than the annual input to the textbook, which does not include icon calculators, dictionaries and other extras from the ipad. Education experts say the ipad can bring many benefits to schools and students. The tablet, which includes interactive teaching materials, can demonstrate solutions to math problems, and students can send their homework to their teachers immediately, as well as opportunities to watch instructional videos from important historical events to learning foreign languages.or guidance. There are many advantages the ipad is especially helpful for children with autism groups and cognitive impairments because of the popularity of special education services.　　Some supporters also say the ipad's interactive learning feature is simply tailored for many of today's students who grew up in the information age and have used electronic devices as part of their daily lives. At the same time, some teaching experts warn that school districts still need to ensure that they continue to support wireless infrastructure construction, maintenance, and other costs associated with the transition to High-tech teaching equipment.　　Even if the most modern equipment is in hand, students still need to have a complete foundation course and experienced teachers. Mark Warschauer, professor of education and information at the University of California, Irvine, said: "The Mark Vauchard is that music is not in the piano, and that cognition is not in the device." I do not want to exaggerate the usefulness of these devices, nor do I want to suggest that these devices have supernatural powers, but they do have many advantages, and this is why countless people outside the school are using them frequently. "Christian Woods (Christian Woods), a 15-year-old Burlington Secondary School student, is a loyal admirer of the ipad. "I think people will like it, and everyone I know in high school dreams of owning an ipad," he said. We often touch High-tech products at home, but as soon as we arrive at school, we become textbooks, so it is a good idea to replace traditional textbooks with an ipad. "Burlington Secondary School has set up a special student support group to help about 1000 students learn how to use a new tablet computer." There are differences in the policies of the school districts on how students use the ipad.　　Some districts have established filtration programs that allow students to log on to previously unapproved sites, and some districts require the ipad to be used only at the end of the holiday and school year. Save the cost of teaching Larkin said: "If we really think of the ipad as a teaching device, we don't want to ask it back, and say, ' Learn to stop in the summer." "The US domestic textbook publishing industry has taken note of this trend and has developed teaching programs specifically targeted at the ipad to cope with growing competition.　　The industry earns 5.5 billion dollars a year from secondary schools. For example, at the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Press, headquartered in Boston, technicians began to make every effort to develop a secondary school course dedicated to the ipad, almost from the moment the ipad was launched in the spring of 2010. The publishing house HMH Fuse Algebra Tutorial was launched at the beginning of the 2010 school year and is currently the best-selling such tutorial.　　Another algebra tutorial and geometry tutorial for the ipad will soon be launched. HMH Fuse Online applications are free, allowing users to have a general understanding of algebra, and related content can be downloaded at a price of 60 dollars. By contrast, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 950The page algebra textbook costs nearly 73 dollars per book and does not include a chart calculator, interactive video and other features.　　For a school that needs to buy 300 algebra textbooks for freshmen, the use of electronic textbooks can save about $4000 in cost. Jay Diskey, head of teaching business at the American Publishers Association, said that at present all the big textbook publishers are transforming into Jay Tiski, but at least in the short term, schools will not abandon traditional textbooks altogether. "I think one of the most important questions to be addressed in the next few years is which category is best for students in the printed version of the textbook, and which is best for students in the digital version," he said. I think we are in a whole new era of research and understanding of digital cognitive methods. (Xuan Chen) to share: