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