Nampa Kids Are Getting Free Tablets

It's costing about $4 million, but soon hundreds of kids in Nampa will have brand new tablets.  Here's what's happening.

The Nampa school district has a plan to pass out tablets to every elementary school kid, and it's training teachers about ways to incorporate those into the classroom.  The elementary kiddos are getting brand new iPads, and the high schoolers will get new Dell Windows-based tablets as part of this massive digital upgrade.

The Idaho Press-Tribune says it's been about a two year process, and school administrators even visited Oregon, Washington, Utah, and Colorado to see how they incorporated technology, and became inspired to put a technology plan together in Nampa after that.

Students in 3rd through 12th grades will be able to take the tablets home at night.

Here's another cool thing.  Teachers' desktop computers in Nampa will be replaced with Mac Book laptops that will be compatible with the iPads, and they'll be able to project to the white board.  It's all going to be in sync.

Does anyone else remember the days when teachers wrote on chalkboards with chalk?   Or used the noisy film projectors and big white pull-down screens?  Um...cough, cough.  Me neither.  Cool, Nampa.  Good for you.