The Charlotte County School district is starting a pilot program in ten classrooms by replacing textbooks with iPads. 

The effort is in response to a new state law requiring public schools to convert textbook materials into digital form by the 2015-2016 school year.   The Charlotte County School District’s Director of Learning through Technology and Media Chris Bress says integrating tablet technology can make the curriculum more engaging.

“I think most people can remember when they were in college or when they were in high school and when they had to study, they had to read the book in an analog fashion where you started on page on and you went all the way through and you had to search for things in the index and such,” said Bress. 

“But now, when curriculum becomes digital, students will be able to jump and search and interact with it in a much more advanced way.  And therefore we hope the curriculum will be come much richer,” he added.

As many as 300 iPads have been purchased for the digital conversion pilot program, but it’s unclear whether the digital conversion will save money in the long run. 

Although there could be a savings from not having to print and ship textbooks, Bress predicts publishers will still charge schools the bulk of what they’re paying now for learning materials as intellectual capital.