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Schools

New Trier High School to Experiment with iPads

Officials plan to find the potential of mobile devices for educational purposes.

is seeking proposals from teachers who want to use iPads in their classes next year.

New Trier Director of Technology Chris Johnson said that teachers from any department, at all grade levels, will be able to submit proposals for how they would structure a course in which all students would be given access to an iPad preloaded with the necessary software for the duration of the course.

The new plan of action arrived in the same week as Apple's launch of iBook 2, a digital textbook series.  

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Earlier:

According to background material provided by Johnson, iPads are already used by some anatomy classes and some students who qualify for English as a second language. In anatomy, they have been used for virtual dissections, reading assignments and the making of videos. However, their usefulness this year has been limited because students only have access to them during class.

Find out what's happening in Winnetka-Glencoewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Under the pilot program, students would be able to take the iPads home.

A pilot with 10 teachers who use the devices in two class sections could potentially reach 500 students, Johnson said.

Board member Patrick O’Donoghue suggested that the district find a way to allow students to keep the iPads, perhaps by selling them at a discount.

“You can’t take them away after a year,” he said.

Johnson said the pilot program at least can be funded from the existing technology budget, mostly by postponing the replacement of other computers.

New Trier High School has campuses in and

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