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