One of the key components of requiring every student to have an iPad this year is to offer eBooks through apps on the iPad.

This is the first year that New Trier has implemented a school wide iPad program, meaning every student is required to purchase or rent an iPad for use throughout the school year.

While the school has offered more eBooks this year than in any previous year, the vast majority of textbooks still need to be purchased as a hard copy.

Senior Charlie Thesing likes the eBook but wishes all his textbooks were online, “I use an eBook for my AP environmental science class that I genuinely like, but I still have to use a textbook for my french class that gets annoying to bring back and forth from school.”
In addition to being lighter and easier to carry, having all the textbooks in one place is something that students appreciate.

“Sometimes I forget my textbook at my desk at home, but because I’m constantly using my iPad I always have it with me and have constant access to any and all eBooks,” said Thesing

The science department offers more eBooks than any other subject but the process of shifting to virtual books has been a little bit glitchy. Senior Luke Duros experienced lots of problems when trying to download his AP Physics textbook and ultimately was forced to get another code to use, and then another, “I bought a code from the bookstore and tried over and over again but it just wouldn’t work. I went to 377 and even they couldn’t figure it out so my teacher had to go to the bookstore and get new codes for not only me but a few other kids in my class.” His problems didn’t stop there though. Once his teacher got the new codes they still didn’t work, “Then the new codes didn’t work either, I eventually went back to our tech department who got in contact with vital source directly who gave us new, real codes,” said Duros.

While Duros’s case may have been unique, most other frustrations have been met with eagerness from the tech team in room 377. It is full of students who are available throughout the day to answer any questions about iPads.

The main two apps used by students for the textbooks are Bookshelf and Pearson eText which both work very similarly.

Senior Natalie Miller likes the eBooks but would prefer to have a paper copy, “The eBook is fine but I would much rather have a textbook because it’s easier to read and I can focus more easily while reading a textbook.”

While some people have problems with the textbooks or eBooks offered by the school, others have had complaints with the iPad program as a whole.

Senior Maggie Brown thinks it’s not as convenient as the school envisioned and should be optional not mandatory for students, “Some of my classes use the iPad constantly and we have all our worksheets and notes on them, others use them half the time with some worksheets and handouts here and there and some don’t even let us take them out.” She thinks there’s a better way that the school could deal with the iPad program, something that offers the students more of a say in how much they get to use them, “I think that when we are signing up for classes we should get an option to pick how much if at all we want to use them throughout the year. The school could offer full use classes, limited use classes and no use classes then we could pick and choose based on that.”

It’s an interesting idea and certainly one that could eliminate a lot of the hassle and complaints involved with the program.

While the school is still in the early stages of introducing iPad usage to everyone, it needs to do a better job communicating with students about what they like and dislike and how they can better improve the iPad experience.

The iPad may be the best way to learn in the future, but it’s clear the school hasn’t completely figured out how to best integrate it into the learning experience at New Trier. While eBooks may be convinent because there is no need to carry a heavy textbook, the apps and the books themselves are causing more headaches for students than the school thought they would.