Endless Possibilities Touted in Braintree Schools WiFi Plan

Inside a biology class at Braintree High School, students are dissecting sea creatures as part of a lesson, except there are no shrieks from queasy teens hesitant to cut open an animal. Instead, it’s a digital lesson with a virtual animal on an iPad.

Perhaps it’s another snow day like the many seen this year in Braintree but instead of staying home and officials looking for alternative measures to make up school days, students are on a computer working on an online assignment distributed by a teacher online.

Lessons like those and more could be the future in Braintree as members of the school districts laid out their plans for implementing a $1.23 million grant from the state for digital learning during Monday’s school committee meeting.

With the grant, every school building in Braintree will receive WiFi by the start of the next school year and the possibility of a new educational tool in the district.

“We don’t view this as a project for any one segment. We don’t do this just for upper level or just special needs. We view this as a substantial project that will seriously alter teaching and learning throughout our schools,” Director of Mathematics, Dr. William Kendall said.

A two-year plan is being implemented as part of the rollout. Year one will make sure every school has WiFi by opening day and includes a large testing period. Testing will happen during September since a test with confidence can only be done with a school full of students and staff.

During the first year, freshmen at the high school will pilot a 1:1 device program which will help the school district find ways to incorporate laptops, tablets, and other wireless devices into education.

The schools would provide the devices in a 1:1 program. Another option is “bring your own device” where students can bring their own hardware to school. Device specification would be released by the school and ideas for renting hardware and dealing with possible issues with students from lower income families are being discussed.

In year two, there will be a continued exploration of the professional development program and an investigation into credit recovery, online courses, make-up work, and snow days.

“Snow days will be a thing of the past if this continues,” Kendall said.

As a condition of the grant, Braintree will contribute $800,000 over two years. Expenses like professional development, wireless devices, software, and future network infrastructure, as well as the price of hardware if the school implements a “bring your own device” program count towards the town’s figure.

Departments are already proposing ways to use the new devices that could turn every classroom into a computer lab. In physical education, a student could record and review their tennis form on an iPad, English language learners could access online services like Rosetta Stone, English classes that could download titles from public domain to a computer or tablet for free instead of purchasing the book.

For Kendall, who started teaching in Ghana while part of the Peace Corps in the 1970s, the possibilities are endless.

“I think what if Africa had WiFi access and the students had a wireless device, It’s mind boggling what could have been done then,” he said. “That’s the vision we have here. We have an incredible opportunity to impact all the teaching and learning of all the students over the next two years.