MIAMI � If the era of the printed textbook ever ends, several schools in the Archdiocese of Miami can say they were ready for the change.

Two schools � Sts. Peter and Paul elementary in Miami and Archbishop Edward McCarthy High School in Southwest Ranches � have now joined St. Hugh School in Coconut Grove and St. Agnes in Key Biscayne in purchasing iPads for their students.

Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO

Brandon Cabrera, a freshman at Archbishop Edward McCarthy High School, show off his iPad, one of 800 acquired by the school. Another 400 are on order.

And the pace of acquisition has escalated: Last year, St. Agnes purchased two iPads for use in a fourth and fifth grade science lab, and St. Hugh purchased 20 that are shared by students in pre-school through fourth grade (see story, June 2011).

This summer, Sts. Peter and Paul is leasing 120 iPads for use by students in fourth through eighth grades; and McCarthy High School went on an iPad spree.

�We began this school year with 800 students using an iPad and we have an order in for 400 more,� said Richard Jean, McCarthy�s principal. �We want our students to be on the cutting educational technology edge. This changes everything in the classroom, and it raises the educational stakes.�

�Students will be using the iPads to take notes in the classroom, to visit educational sites to gather information and for testing preparation, and of course for homework,� said Joe Morano, McCarthy�s technology director. �Eventually the iPads will be used in lieu of school books, when the publishers catch up with new technology.�

In fact, that is what propelled Sts. Peter and Paul to look into the iPads. Judith Nu�ez-Nocedo, middle school science teacher, had to buy new science textbooks at the end of last year, and the company she chose offered an interactive curriculum that has students doing most of their reading and test-taking online.

�It�s the way the book companies are now going,� said Nu�ez-Nocedo, who already had been using the company�s website to augment her teaching materials.

The iPads will be used to teach science and reading in a completely interactive way.

�The books are read out loud for students who have dyslexia,� Nu�ez-Nocedo said. �It allows students to have their own individual (learning) time. They can see demos of experiments.�

The presence of iPads, however, does not mean McCarthy�s or Sts. Peter and Paul�s students will be free to roam the Internet during class time.

�They will find plenty of filters in place,� said McCarthy�s Morano.

At Sts. Peter and Paul, the iPads will not go home, and neither will students be able to bring their own iPads to school, in order to ensure that no one tampers with the pre-loaded content or applications.

If school officials needed any convincing about the usefulness of technology, their doubts dissipated after watching Sts. Peter and Paul students take part in an online math and spelling competition last year.

�We saw how many hours on end the children were in the computer lab doing math problems and writing spelling words to compete with students around the world,� said Marina Stabenau, the school�s computer teacher and technology guru. �They didn�t want to go to sleep to keep doing math problems.�

That does not mean teachers will become obsolete, say officials at both schools.

�The iPads program augments the knowledge imparted by the teacher in the classroom,� said Jean, McCarthy�s principal.

Veteran McCarthy history teacher Lawrence Boes found that in one lesson.

�I instructed my students to find the first country to implement Solidarity. The next thing I knew we had an active discussion on Poland and its use of civil resistance to advance the rights of workers and implement social change. Students are able to access the facts immediately. This is a great way to fast forward teaching,� Boes said.

�They�ll always need a teacher because they need to know how to get there,� said Jocelyn Zlatkin, assistant principal and reading teacher at Sts. Peter and Paul. �It�s not how much you know anymore, it�s if you know how to get it. I think it�s just a matter of combining our technology with our knowledge and making it work together.�

The iPads are not the only technological step forward taken by Sts. Peter and Paul this year.

Over the summer, Stabenau created a new website and integrated it with an app that allows parents with iPhones or iPads to download the school calendar and get an RSS feed of school announcements.

�My parents loved it,� said Sts. Peter and Paul�s principal, Carlota Morales. �When we said it at the parents� meeting, we lost them. They all took out their phones to download the app.�

She herself was so excited about the new technology that �I bought an iPhone to use the app. Now I don�t know how to use the phone.�

Another byproduct of technology is that it allows schools to do their share to protect the environment. �Driving the parents to the website has been crucial� to avoid sending reams of paper home, said Stabenau.

In Sts. Peter and Paul�s case, it also helps the school promote itself. She created a Facebook page that parents can �like.�

�With all the parents that we have �liking� us on Facebook, it shows up on their Facebook account. Then people who are interested can link back to us,� Stabenau said.

And in case of emergency, added Morales enthusiastically, �they can follow us on Twitter!�

Valerie Moran contributed to this report.