Kindergartners will receive free iPad 2 tablets by this fall in Auburn, Maine, highlighting the increasing importance of technology in the classroom and in the publishing industry.
The Auburn school district has voted to spend $200,000 on 285 iPads for students and teachers. Schools may use the leftover money, over $40,000, to purchase apps and digital texts rather than books, in what would have been a shocking move just several years ago.
Some children in a pilot program will receive iPads as early as May. In fact, by 2017 digital textbook sales may match those in traditional print, according to a report from educational software provider Xplana.
A major uptake of tablets in schools would be an logical extension of the devices' popularity in non-educational markets. Amazon already sells more Kindle e-books than paperbacks and periodical publishers facing declining circulations are pinning hopes on tablet subscribers as they become popular reading devices.
What's more, the ability to search a e-text would be particularly useful for students, and e-textbooks could link out to live Web content to add dynamic material that stays up-to-date.
But today's students aren't necessarily convinced: one survey found that 75 percent of college students would prefer traditional books.
Bu according to Superintendent Tom Morril, the move to tablets is inevitable, making an iPad "even more important than a book."
He's not the only one to think so: a school district in Virginia is now replacing its Advanced Placement Biology textbook with iPads. New York, California, and Illinois have also jumped on the iPad wagon, spending between $150,000 and $1.3 million for the devices and apps in order to engage students in the classroom.
The iPad isn't the only tablet on the market, however. Android-based device makers are also setting their sights on schools. MySpark, a Toronto-based company, plans to sell its educational use tablets at $200 to $350 this spring, significantly chearper than the $500 iPad.
It's a good sign for educators since competition between Android and Apple tablets will likely mean lower prices for schools and more tablets in the hands of students.
Whichever tablet schools choose, however, the days of 30-pound backpacks may soon be at an end.
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