Spellman Moves From Textbooks To iPads

BrocktonPost
BROCKTON--Cardinal Spellman High School plans to phase out text books, by initiating an Apple iPad program, for the 2012-2013 school year.
Cardinal Spellman is the first school, within the Archdiocese of Boston, to implement iPads as a learning too, school officials said in a prepared statement.
Spellman plans to begin using iBooks and etextbooks, which cost much less than traditional textbooks. Not all textbooks will be available as etextbooks this year but, Spellman anticipates those textbooks will be offered within the next few years.
“We are very excited and proud to be making this move. Dickens’ Great Expectations is still taught in many high schools. That is exactly what the school is looking for with the introduction of iPads for all students at Cardinal Spellman. We have great expectations,” said the high school's president John McEwan.
In coordination with Apple, Cardinal Spellman will equip each one of its students with an iPad.
Students will pay a small technology fee, making the iPad available for a fraction of the cost of purchasing it independently. Students will be issued their iPads during the summer.
Spellman will offer training sessions for students and their parents.
Teachers have already begun iPad training sessions. They received their iPads in December as part of a professional development course. They began iPad training, through Apple, in anticipation of making the iPad a major learning tool in Spellman’s daily curriculum. Other training programs will continue throughout the year in subject-specific areas. Teachers will be able to access their Promethean Boards from anywhere in their classroom and use the latest in apps to enhance their lesson plans.
Beginning in 2010, a special technology committee, comprised of parents, teachers, students, administrators and community members was formed by Spellman President McEwan.
The committee met to hear the latest information on the use of one-to-one technology in the classrooms. They looked at laptops, iPads and other new technology entering the market.
From those meetings, a number of pilot programs were instituted in the school.
The final recommendation from the committee was to go forward with a one-to-one program of iPads for all students and teachers.
McEwan is confident that the teachers and students will greatly benefit from this next step in technology. “It’s a giant step forward,” McEwan said.
Cardinal Spellman High School is a Catholic, co-educational, college preparatory school serving students from 40 different communities on the South Shore.