Technology and Books A Laptop For Every Student

Technology can be very expensive when it comes to equipping every student with a laptop. Textbooks are very expensive, too.

I have talked before about the high cost of educating our students. One of the ways of cutting expenses just may be through technology. Equipping every student with a laptop, desktop, smart board, smart slate, smart phone, or smart tablet just might be one way of cutting costs in schools.

One of the high costs in schools that has been necessary in education has been textbooks. Textbooks have consistently been very expensive and have had to be updated every few years. School districts usually replace textbooks on a cycle based on subject matter. Districts have been able to use government funds for a few free textbooks each year. These extra funds have been stretched by extending the life of currently used textbooks to the point of them falling apart and also becoming out of date with subject matter.

Textbook companies are quickly moving away from printing textbooks. Curriculum is now being made available online or through software. With technology, textbooks can now be available at any place the technology is located. And we all know that technology and wifi are just about everywhere now. Some cities are even making wifi available to a large section of their city for free.

The costs of the software or accessing textbooks over the internet are surprisingly cheap compared to the purchasing of printed books. The textbook companies have come to realize that a move from printing books is very cost effective to all parties involved. Textbooks and curriculum can also be continuously updated so that the purchase of one license or one annual fee can be pennies compared to the buying of actual books.

Smart phones have become so widely available that maybe each student does not even need a laptop. At one time cell phones were basically banned in our schools. But now we have many schools embracing the use of these devices that can be used to surf the internet and maybe even access textbooks anywhere. So maybe our schools do not even need to equip most of our students with any technology at all because our students are probably carrying the technology they need right in their pockets.

This all can seem confusing to those of us that have gone through having basically no technology back in the 50's, 60's, and 70's to having so much technology at our fingertips today. But, if we are to save our schools from bankruptcy we need to embrace the onslaught of technology being used in every phase of our lives today.