This is my first year as media specialist at a small Catholic high school.
The school has had some very lean years and declining enrollment. Our new
principal is trying hard to change the community's perception of the school.
He has many new ideas to increase enrollment and has already proven to be an
excellent fundraiser. His most impressive plan is to make the school
paperless within the next four years. He intends to begin with this year's
incoming freshman class (August 2005). The tentative plan is the students
purchasing tablet computers (functions like a laptop but student can take
notes on one side with a stylus) and then using online textbooks at a
greatly reduced cost compared to print.
I am wondering if there are any schools currently using online textbooks
and/or tablet computers? I have found information about tablet computers but
do not know of a source for high school textbooks online. Perhaps the
textbooks are on CD-ROM? We had heard of another school that was using
tablets but it turns out they are using regular lap tops with print text
books. We are all curious but the leap to paperless seems quite ambitious,
considering it has only been within the past few months that all staff
members have had a reliable computer to use and started using email.
Does anyone know anything about this technology or is anyone else out there
moving towards being "paperless"?
Cheryl Newhouse
Media Specialist
Santa Fe Catholic High School
Lakeland, Fl 33801
863-665-4188, X236
cnewhouse@santafecatholic.org
> "A perennial problem for schools, teachers and students is that
> textbooks are increasingly expensive, quickly outdated and
> physically cumbersome. A move away from reliance on textbooks
> to the use of multimedia or online information (digital content)
> offers many advantages, including cost savings, increased
> efficiency, improved accessibility, and enhancing learning
> opportunities in a format that engages today's web-savvy students. "
> http://www.nationaledtechplan.org/images/dev/PUSD_goodtogreat.pdf
> Dear Folks,
> Having been both a SLMS in a Catholic Title 1 school with no budget for
technology and barely books, except what I could garner in grants and
donations for both, and now a Tech Coordinator in a more upscale Catholic
school, I am dismayed to see the emphasis on Technology in both concern and
budget, similar to that across the country, it seems.
> The Catholic Library Association of Washington DC (Elementary) is having
their first joint meeting with our Tech Coordinators to get the lay of the
land regarding what we are both about...it seems that these positions are
melding into one where budgets for staffing are slim, and that as usual, no
one in administrations (local or national) really understand the importance
of the SLMS and how this affects learning, despite the recent studies posted
on this site!
> My gut feeling is that unless these two professionals work together as
team teachers, frankly, libraries are in a bad way which means ultimately,
so are our students. I will certainly write letters, but our organization
carries little weight unfortunately..if anyone has a group letter outlining
what we feel we need as professionals, to which we can add our names, I
would be happy to bring it to our February 10 meeting.
> Thank you,
> Tina Hudak (trying to get back to books!)
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