Writing for the Richmond Times-Dispatch , Chris Dovi reports that the school board for Henrico County, Va. has voted unanimously to purchase Apple iBooks for sixth-graders this coming academic year. The news comes in a new article entitled Henrico 6th-Graders Getting iBooks.
Henrico County was the centerpiece of Apple’s launch of the new iBook when the remodeled consumer laptop was first unveiled a year ago. On the same day Apple introduced the new iBook, it announced Henrico County had signed up to buy more than 20,000 of them.
Since then, seventh and eighth graders in Henrico schools have been outfitted with the systems, which are used for classwork and research. The move hasn’t gone totally without any problems, though — network troubles, security issues cheating and inappropriate content downloaded by some middle-schoolers got the program into some pretty hot water. But the school district’s superintended told Dovi that those troubles are behind them now and they’re ready to go forward.
Dovi indicated that the iBooks will be introduced at a more measured pace to sixth graders than they had been before — initially, the systems will only be available during school hours, and will be maintained on mobile carts available for teachers to check out individually. The new effort will also be mated with “intense training” for teachers, students and parents alike.