Three Year Plan to Bring Wi-Fi, Technology Instruction to Fort Lee Classrooms

Anthony Galatioto is giving students in his computer lab classroom their weekend homework: a cityscape photography project, using pictures taken with their cell phone cameras.

Galatioto, a technology education teacher at Fort Lee High School, is in the frontline of the district’s long-term effort to enhance its use of technology in classrooms through a three-year plan to implement Wi-Fi, replace outdated computers and train staff in integrating technology into the curriculum.

“We’re not going to fight the tide,” Galatioto said, referring to the mobile devices typically discouraged in the classroom. “We’re going to use it, but we’re going to use it in the way it should for education.”

The district allocated $200,000 last year for the first phases of the plan, to be implemented over the next three years. The plan calls for a total of over $470,000 in local funding to fully implement.

According to a report by the board of education’s technology committee, many of the district’s 1,128 student computers have reached or are nearing a decade of use, and some funds allocated by the board will be used to replace older models.

“The technology goes so fast, and with the budget of course schools can’t keep up with businesses,” computer science teacher Gary Glebas said. “So we’re glad when we can get new machines.”

Computer science and digital photography are classes where the importance of technology may seem obvious, but wireless internet access and improved student laptop usage, acting superintendent Sharon Amato says, will infuse technology education into the curriculum at all grade levels.

Part of the curriculum budget, she says, will go toward professional development programs to bring teachers up to speed with the use of devices like SMART boards in their instruction.

“School is no longer having a teacher teaching,” Galatioto said. “You have to lead the kids to discover things themselves.”

Another incentive for the district to move forward on technology improvements is the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), which will begin testing New Jersey students from grades three to 11 on common core standards through an online test beginning in the 2014-15 school year.

Implementing the test will require increased student access to computers and the Internet.

“Infusion of technology across the curriculum and infusing twenty-first century skills in all our learning. That’s our goal,” Amato said. “We don’t have the infrastructure today, but this is certainly something to aspire to in the next few years.”