Lake County School District still buys printed, expensive textbooks for kids.
And, for those that went to college, or their kids are, you KNOW how expensive those constantly updated textbooks cost.
In this age of the internet and very inexpensive laptops, why haven't School District staff moved faster to start using cheap laptops, rather than 5,000 desktop computers, for students to use not only for computer projects, but to read ELECTRONIC versions of textbooks?
Why haven't they created incentives to get kids who have laptops bring them to school for use, rather than buying desktops for the schools.
Amazon.com now says they sell about 150 electronic books for their Kindle reader for every 100 printed copies. And, they just announced a new Kindle that is under $150. And, you don't even have to have a Kindle to read their books - you can download a version for Windows that works on home or work computers and laptops.
And, there are thousands of older books past their copyright date and are in the public domain and FREE from several sources. The entire Tarzan series is available to download for free. There probably are some books used in classes today that are available for free downloads.
The School District would save a bundle of money if cheap laptops and electronic books were used, but it is my opinion that some of the staff or Board are NOT computer literate enough to push ahead with pilot programs NOW.
Here is the link to an article where an organization, founded by the FOUNDER of Sun computers, Scott McNealy, has existed for six years to provide electronic textbooks to kids in schools.
So why isn't there evidence that the Lake School District is running pilot programs. Why aren't they finding a way to get students to buy cheap laptops and give them electronic versions of at least some textbooks?
Maybe some of the candidates for the open School District Board positions will make this part of their election platforms.
vj
