Saugus Union School District board members will vote Jan. 5, 2016 on whether to place Chromebooks and laptops into classrooms.
This comes following a nationwide push to utilize technology in classrooms and to give students a greater variety of learning opportunities.
“The district wants to incorporate all sorts of technology because that is what students will use in the real world,” said Lee Morrell, public information officer for Saugus Union School District.
“We want to make sure the education kids are getting provides the best opportunities they can possibly get, and that includes using technology to give them the best tools to learn.”
Utilizing technology in a classroom setting is nothing new for the school district, Morrell said.
SMART Boards are already in place in some of the elementary school district’s classrooms. The SMART Boards are electronic versions of whiteboards that also serve as a “collaborative learning software”, according to the SMART Technology company website.
“We’ve been rolling out the SMART Board program for several years now,” Morrell said.
Funding for SMART Boards came with the passing of Measure EE in November 2014, which granted a $148 million bond to improve district facilities.
Saugus Union School District employees plan to implement studies in the future to see if technology in the classroom is, in fact, helping students learn and retain more information.
“We have received anecdotal evidence from teachers saying kids are paying more attention in classes with the use of SMART Boards,” Morrell said.
“We won’t be doing studies until SMART Boards are in all of the classrooms.”
Due to funding issues, a limited number of classrooms in some of the Saugus Union schools have electronics for educational purposes.
Morrell said that he has not heard any opposition to adding electronics to all classrooms.
“Saugus Union School District is known to be very progressive in terms of giving students an advanced education.”
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2 Comments
No studies on its effectiveness until they are all installed sounds like Obamacare where they had to pass it to find out what was in it.
Smartboards have been used since the 90s. Let do some research and present a plan that makes sense to pay 30 years for a 5 year asset if there is no proof of results.
The reason they are popular is because they work. It allows for documentation that can be referred to by parents while helping on homework. Have an implementation plan based on best practices, train those who use it today and modify it for incorporation into district processes and you have my support.