Many US schools adding iPads, trimming textbooks

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Many US schools adding iPads, trimming textbooks

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At least one classroom of students is getting iPads for each student to use during the school day.

04 September,2011 10:12 am

For incoming freshmen at western Connecticuts suburban Brookfield High School, hefting a backpack weighed down with textbooks is about to give way to tapping out notes and flipping electronic pages on a glossy iPad tablet computer.A few hours away, every student at Burlington High School near Boston will also start the year with new school-issued iPads, each loaded with electronic textbooks and other online resources in place of traditional bulky texts.While iPads have rocketed to popularity on many college campuses since Apple Inc. introduced the device in spring 2010, many public secondary schools this fall will move away from textbooks in favor of the lightweight tablet computers.Apple officials say they know of more than 600 districts that have launched what are called one-to-one programs, in which at least one classroom of students is getting iPads for each student to use throughout the school day.