Clarksville, IN (WDRB) -- Textbooks are becoming history in one school district. It's called the One-to-One program. Last year, Clarksville Middle School issued laptops to every 7th grader. Now, it's expanded to all eighth graders.
Jessi Smith, an 8th grade Language Arts Teacher at Clarksville Middle School says, "I'm very excited because I'm only 24, this is my generation."
In a world where just about everything is online, Clarksville Middle School is making another leap into the digital age. Now, 8th graders will join 7th graders in getting a new laptop for school. Teachers say funds that can be used to buy new textbooks were used for computers instead.
Brandy Worster, an 7th and 8th grade Social Studies teacher says, "This is our laptop cart. All of our One-to-One teachers have these in the classroom."
The laptops must stay at school, but students will use them all day long, taking them from class to class.
Scott Gardner is the school's new principal. He says, "Having those paper textbooks are probably not going to be a reality a few years from now."
He's excited to see the computer program grow where everything from assignments to reading materials to tests are all on the laptops. For multiple choice tests, the software automatically grades it for teachers.
For students, there are some ground rules for these laptops.
Smith says, "They cannot use Facebook. They cannot use Twitter. They cannot use YouTube. They can't use a lot of the gaming sites."
Teachers are able to see everything the students do on the computers and can change their settings. And, even though students will have technology at their fingertips, traditional teaching methods are still key.
Smith says, "I still have novels that we're going to read out of and stuff. It's not going to be just fully technology you know?"
Registration is Thursday for Clarksville Community Schools and classes start on August 6th.
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