When it comes to learning a northern Michigan school district is looking toward the web instead of paper. To keep up with the changing times a new program at Manistee High School may soon replace textbooks with laptops.
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It's textbooks that are currently used as the primary source for learning, but a new program at Manistee High School may soon change that.
Principal Andrew Huber says, “When you take a look at the Michigan curriculum it really doesn't match up perfectly with the textbook and we found that our teachers are already augmenting 30% to 40% of what a textbook covers.”
If approved the one to one laptop initiative would supply all incoming freshman for the 2008-2009 school year with their very own computer, a learning device they would hold on to for their entire high school career.
Technology Director Ken Blakey-Shell says, “A lot of times a student might not fully understand a lesson or write it down wrong in their notes and when they go to do their homework they end up doing it wrong.”
A trend that educators are hoping the program will fix, just by logging on to the schools educational web page students are automatically enrolled in their classes and can review daily lessons and check over their work.
Blakey-Shell says, " Give them the resources to understand it on their own outside of class. If students are absent or miss something in class we have resources to make their time at home more efficient."
Huber says, “I believe that this is the way kids are going to learn in the future and best prepare them for whatever type of experience they have after high school."
Educators say moving away from textbooks and towards the daily use of computers is where the future is headed its just the matter of finding the right time economically to do so, and for Manistee High School that time might be right now.
If approved the one to one laptop program would begin at the start of the upcoming school year and come with a price tag of around $150,000. Majority of the program's start up costs would be funded through the schools textbook and technology advancement funding.
