| Empire High School in Vail, located on the | | | | purchase the laptops and added technology |
| edge of Tucson, is the first in the Arizona | | | | needs. Some new challenges had to be faced by |
| schools to be all-electronic. Instead of | | | | the Arizona schools' new Empire High and |
| textbooks, the 350 students use wireless, | | | | research was done to address them. They had |
| Apple laptop computers to research, organize | | | | 350 students, who needed to be continuously |
| their data, write and graph assignments, and | | | | and reliably connected to the Internet at |
| create class presentations. The Arizona | | | | high speed. All the laptops had to be |
| schools Empire High is a new school with a | | | | configured to best suit the needs of the |
| blank slate. Arizona schools officials could | | | | students for learning. The needed educational |
| hire new teachers committed to | | | | material had to be located on the Internet |
| technology-based teaching and purchase | | | | and integrated into lesson plans. A method |
| computers instead of textbooks. The Arizona | | | | for students to submit assignments across the |
| schools officials wanted to move teachers | | | | Web was needed. These were problems they knew |
| away from habitual teaching from textbooks, | | | | had to be resolved before the school year |
| cover-to-cover, and gave area students the | | | | began. What the Arizona schools officials had |
| choice to attend Empire or another school. | | | | not planned on was a different sort of |
| Having researched schools in other states | | | | technological problem. It seems that many |
| prior to the all-electronic decision, Arizona | | | | students who used home computers for gaming, |
| schools officials found students who were | | | | surfing the Internet, and X-Box, had a |
| clearly more engaged in their studies and | | | | difficult time translating these skills to |
| unusually enthusiastic about school. One | | | | those needed in school, such as using word |
| reason was that they took a more active part | | | | processing software, saving documents to |
| in the lesson process, rather than everything | | | | specific locations, and being able to |
| being "fed" to them. Another advantage to | | | | retrieve the files later. Skills training had |
| laptops over textbooks is that groundbreaking | | | | to be added to the lesson plans. For other |
| information takes five to six years to get | | | | schools that are interested in setting up an |
| into textbooks, especially in the science | | | | all-electronic school, the Arizona schools |
| fields. Of the few all-electronic schools | | | | officials advise that it must be a public |
| across the nation, many are doing well from | | | | choice. You cannot force such drastic |
| the perspective of both the students and the | | | | learning changes. Include the parents and |
| educators. The Arizona schools officials | | | | teachers in the planning at the ground floor. |
| clearly felt they could enhance their | | | | After a year, the system is working well |
| students' educational experience with | | | | overall. The Arizona schools plan to increase |
| technology over textbooks. Replacing | | | | enrollment at Empire High to 750 students in |
| textbooks with laptops for other Arizona | | | | the near future. |
| schools would prove expensive at $850 each. | | | | |
| For Empire, they took the usual $500 to $600 | | | | Patricia Hawke is a staff writer for Schools |
| cost per student for a complete set of | | | | K-12, providing free, in-depth reports on all |
| textbooks for four years, as well as the cost | | | | U.S. public and private K-12 schools. |
| of a computer lab, and used this money to | | | | |