Brick Schools Share Details On $5.8 Million Invested In Technology

In the last three years, the Brick Township school district has invested about $5.8 million in technology -- adding computers, upgrading networks and more.

At the township’s Board of Education meeting last week, the district put on display for the school board and the audience a video showing that technology in action -- including feedback from the teachers and students using it.

James Baio, the district’s co-manager of information technology, said the district’s expenditures on technology have put 6,800 mobile devices in the schools: iPads in kindergarten through second grade, Dell netbooks in the third- through fifth-grade classrooms; Chromebooks in sixth through eighth grades and MacBook Air laptops in the high schools.

There are projectors and laptops in almost every teacher’s classroom, and an upgraded private fiberoptic network and bandwidth to 1 gigabyte with the internet service provider to handle the amount of data and activity in the district, he said.

There are enough mobile devices for all the students to use and get used to, which is critical with the upcoming PARCC tests that are conducted online, Baio said.

“It’s not quite a one-to-one match (devices-to-students) yet but that’s what we’re working toward,” Baio said.

Of the $5.8 million spent, $2.3 million was spent in the 2012-2013 school year on acquiring some of the MacBooks and working on the infrastructure, which included adding wireless access points in every classroom. In 2013-2014, another $3 million was spent, including $1.9 from a Sandy grant, for more MacBooks and infrastructure work, and this year $500,000 was budgeted for additional work and equipment, Baio said.

There are 24 Promethean Activtables -- two in each school -- that have been purchased. They allow students to work in groups on interactive problems on touchtables, according to literature on the company’s website.

Teachers and students interviewed on the video spoke positively about having the technology at their fingertips. You can view it here on YouTube.

All of it will help the district meet the technology needs and standards that are part of the Common Core initiative that the state has adopted, officials said.

(PHOTO: A slide from the district’s PowerPoint presentation includes numbers on how many Macbooks have been distributed in the high school. Courtesy Brick Township Schools)