School District 128 in Illinois has bought more than 300 iBooks so that each sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grader and teacher will have one to use both in and out of school, the Daily Southtown reports.
District 128 will pay US$362,000 over four years for the computers, digital cameras and other equipment, the article adds. Apple is providing free teacher training, systems help and curriculum development aids. In exchange, administrators will share students’ test scores with Apple to show if the deployment improves learning, according to the Daily Southtown.
Schaumburg School District 54 was the first Illinois district to deploy iBooks to each student. They began receiving the laptops last month. By fall 2004, each fourth through sixth-grader in northwest suburban School District 54 will get an iBook — about 5,200 computers total.