High School Ditches Chalkboards, Textbooks For Laptops

In this district, teachers don’t say “Open your textbook.” They say, “Open your laptop.”

“Basically, in every class, we’re using laptops to take notes on Microsoft Word. It’s more organized,” says Andrea, a sophomore.

Seven years ago, while Andrea was still in elementary school, Pascack Valley became the first high school district in New Jersey to give every student a laptop.

“Before, without the computers, I’d have to carry around a lot more textbooks and stuff. My backpack weighed 50 pounds. Now, it’s like five pounds of notebooks and stuff,” says Andrea.

“I’d say the vast majority of our subject areas have broken away from textbooks,” says Erik Gunderson, director of curriculum. “We have our teachers collaborating with one another in the various school buildings that we have. And so they’ll either Skype or video conference.”