Digital Textbook Pilot in Florida
Lake Minneola High School in Lake County, Florida is providing iPads for all of its students this coming school year. Equipping all students in a school with their own devices is not a new story, even if it is iPads. What is new is that the Lake Minneola project is part of a state pilot program to test out the possible impact of a new Florida law that requires districts to adopt all digital instructional materials by 2015.
Mary Jane Tappan, deputy chancellor for curriculum, instruction and student services at the Florida Department of Education was quoted in an article in the Orlando Sentinel as saying about the pilots, "They are great ways for us to learn about this transition so that by (school year 2015-16) all of us will be better prepared. Because of this district pilot we'll be able to collect that information in a more organizaed fashion." Read the entire article here.
What do you think the pilot in Lake Minneola will reveal? Will they save money? Will student achievement increase? Will students lose their iPads or have them stolen?