School library goes fully digital

An elite prep school in New England is getting rid of its traditional library of 20 000 books and replacing it with an entirely digital infrastructure, reports TechFlash.

Cushing Academy's headmaster envisions "a virtual library where students will have access to millions of books," and calls it "a model for the 21st-century school".

The 144-year-old school has given away half of its library collection and is spending nearly half a million dollars on a new digital centre that includes flat-screen TVs and laptop-friendly study carrels. Cushing spent $10 000 on the Kindles and Sony readers, which will be filled with study material.

The University of Portsmouth has given 30 000 students their own Google Apps account to use during their studies, states Computing.co.uk.

The Google Apps Education Edition is free of advertising and within days of the service being introduced, Portsmouth students were using it in 17 countries in 10 languages. Google Apps offers students a range of applications accessible from anywhere using any Internet-connected device, including mobile phones.

University of Portsmouth information services director, Andrew Minter, said Google offers a package of collaborative applications that students want, allowing them to work together online in real-time. "It's the sort of integrated system students have been crying out for," he said.

Promethean, a provider of interactive education technology solutions, has designed the ActivClassroom, providing educators with more tools to ignite learning in classrooms worldwide, says FinancialExpress.

The solutions facilitate the sharing of information and enables students to collectively engage in any lesson.

The visual and experiential design is aimed to cultivate immersive, collaborative learning environments by expanding its features, tools and resource integration capabilities.