Parents filled Greene County (N.C.) Middle School Tuesday night to pick up the first batch of iBooks provided through a school technology initiative developed with Apple, according to Kinston.com . Meanwhile, hopes are high for a US$6 million project that’s equipping almost all students at Gunderson High School in San Jose, Calif., with the Apple laptops.
Under Greene County’s iTech program, the school system will buy 1,783 computers for grades 6-12. On Tuesday Greene County Middle School Principal Jeff Parris said that computers at home and in the classroom have become a necessity for today’s school children.
The article also includes positive comments by Gail Edmondson, laptop project manager and principal at Snow Hill Primary School, and Byron Joyner, an eighth-grader, about the anticipated use of iBooks and AirPort wireless technology.
In San Jose, some have questioned the iBook expenditure, but school and district officials have high hopes for the project, according to the San Jose Mercury News . If the program works, they feel students will be better prepared for college and the work place.
In education-speak, this is the first step of a “vertical slice” program, the Mercury News reports. The iBooks cost the district about $1,360 each. The rest of the funds go to expenses like insurance, infrastructure, training and software — and eventually, more computers. In 2004, laptops will be issued to students at Steinbeck Middle School. The following year, fourth- and fifth-graders at Allen Elementary will get computers.