NY School Goes All-in on Digital Textbooks And All Textbooks Available on iPad

With the evolvement of technology, the world has moved on with a fast pace. The environment that exists in the society and institutions is digital now rather than textual. An example of this trend has been showcased by Archbishop Stepinac High School where the backpacks have reduced their load to a greater extent. 

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Instead of heavy textbooks, there exist only laptops and tablets in the backpacks of students. All the subjects, ranging from biology to calculus are taught digitally to the students. These subjects are easily accessible on the laptops and tablets of the students.

When a student from Archbishop Stepinac High school was interviewed, he stated that his backpack has become much lighter these days. It is contradicting to the weight he used to carry before which was somewhere close to 30 pounds. Now his backpack consists of an iPad, the lunch and a jacket. It has reduced the burden from students a great deal and they can reach the schools without the carry out hassles.

The all boys Roman Catholic school of the New York City did not cite the dropping of bills or lost of weight as the main reasons for them turning digital. There is a strong wind of such digital trends that is flowing in New York City and this school has just fallen for that. However, it will help the students to deal with their textbook bills as well as the weight of those textbooks.  All the books are now available at the Internet cloud in this school, except for the religious books, as reported by one of the official at school.

When the vice principal of the Archbishop Stepinac High school was confronted, he stated that the school went digital because of a particular reason. He cited the interest of students to learn something digitally than in textbooks. It improves the grades of learning and this has laid the foundation of digital learning at the school. He also added that many students today focus totally on the online content and are very satisfied with what they read on the internet. It is a richer source of information and therefore the school has introduced digital learning for the students. There are assessments that are digital, virtual labs and also the students will be able to blog using the digital technology.

The textbooks that are based on history also include videos to support the claims. This makes the study even more interesting for the students of the school. Subjects like Woodrow Wilson to Malcolm X are all covered by videos. The science books are also embedded with motion pictures and show the processes in motion. This leaves an everlasting impact on the students and they remember the processes eve more than reading them in textual books. The students can also make notes of things at the margin of the page. Subjects like mathematics also taught to students using digital books.

The books are readily available to all the students. Hence a junior in the school can check out concepts of algebra from a senior class’s book. This is very much possible and the availability to access all the books. The students who want to review their concept of osmosis from a junior book can also get an access digitally and get solutions to their curiosity. The technology director of the school, who is mastermind behind this program, stated that an update has been inflicted in the books in one semester alone. It is actually easy to update a digital book rather than a text book.

The publisher of the Digital library was interviewed and she expressed her views saying that Archbishop Stepinac high school is the only institution in the country that has made digital books available to all students and in all categories. So the students can open any book they want from any class. Another history teacher of the school said that the interactive content that is available on the digital books reduces out work burden and we do not need to discuss something in minute details when there is a video associated with the event. Students are very much attracted to videos and there is no substitute to digital education in the modern environment.  She adds that some improvement in the education standards of the school has already been seen and she credits it to the digital education.

The tuition fee at Archbishop Stepinac High School is 9000 USD per year and students can buy their own choice of laptop or tablet. The change from text books to digital books has fared very well to the school and that the students are also growing more intellectual with such a change.

A student when interviewed stated that it is very exciting for him to read a digital book rather than a textual book. He added that textual books can prove to be very boring but the digital books can interact well with students and he loves reading various subjects under a digital book.  Another feature that sets digital education apart from textual education is that it is portable. If you are in a bus or a shaky environment, you can just plug in your earphones and listen to the lessons. This is a revolutionary trend that is about to sweep all the schools in the world.

There are more factors that are contributing to the popularity of digital education at the market. The major reason is the drop in price of tablets and laptops. Such a drop is actually very good for the students to grab their choice at the cheapest price and get going with their education. Some of the districts have taken up a very evolutionary and creative approach to digital education. The Vali district around Tucson has made “Beyond Textbooks” concept. This concept focuses more on the insights of a teacher and what she has developed for the students and not what the publisher wants to say.

Going digital can prove to be very expensive. The Archbishop high school has invested over 1 million dollars in order to go digital. The infrastructure that includes bandwidth cost them a fortune. The investment is the major reason why most schools in the States are reluctant to go digital. A foundation run by Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Facebook has employed 9 million USD to a NGO for the improvement of connectivity in schools.

There is an expanded bandwidth at the Archbishop Stepinac high school. Even with such a big bandwidth, the school had to ban social media and gaming websites. There is an authority that monitors the use of internet in the school during day and it makes sure no student is found downloading a video for fun. Downloading a video can also prove to be bad for the bandwidth, therefore it is checked in the school.

Digital education is certainly a great plan unless the Wi-Fi goes down.

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