A School Without Books

This past week Sara Neufeld showed us an article called "Tossing Out Textbooks" which talked about a Empire High School in Tuscon, Arizona. The school threw out all of their textbooks in favor of getting each student a laptop and developing curriculum around technological sources. The article played up things like the teachers making students use more firsthand sources and that there was an emphasis on teacher training. Strangely, there was limited talk about conflict in the story or challenges. The class picked up on that. Concerns were raised about people who couldn't read from computer screens and what happens with lack of funding. Some said computers were cheaper and lighter than multiple textbooks, others said the old-fashioned way worked better. On the plus side, at least the teachers were being trained in the technology that they were going to use; however, as we saw last week, that doesn't mean that they'll still be able to teach...