Technology-Driven Education in New Jersey: More than Child's Play

This article was written by Colleen O'Dea for MiND TV and NJ Spotlight.

When school starts in the fall, all kindergarteners in Auburn, Maine, will greet their new teachers, sit in their small chairs and start playing and working with their iPad2s.

The school committee in this city of about 23,000 near Lewiston voted in early April to provide about 285 children who are attending school for the first time with their own tablet computers.

"It can close the gap for many students; it can also accelerate the learning for many others," said Thomas Morrill, the district superintendent, explaining that he believes moving to this technology will boost the district’s literacy rate from about 60 percent to 90 percent in the next three years. "It will change the way we do business in classrooms."

As news about the iPads spread first across the city, then the state and then the nation, a debate began to rage over this decision to give children who can’t read or write, and who sometimes throw things, the latest in portable computing.

"Not every school system has the foresight and also the tenacity to make sure our kids are going to successful," Morrill told the school committee in introducing his proposal. "There will be obstacles. We must persevere."

And one of the obstacles cited by citizens who were asked about the proposal by the local newspaper, the Lewiston Sun Journal, is the expense. The cost is estimated to be around $200,000.

Money to pay both for technology and to train teachers, some of whom feel uncomfortable with new methods, is also one of the biggest challenges New Jersey district officials say they face in trying to turn today’s classrooms into 21st century learning labs.

Continue reading this story in NJ Spotlight.

No More Pencils, No More Books: Technology-Driven Education in NJ Schools

NJ Spotlight, an issue-driven news website that provides critical insight to New Jersey’s communities and businesses. It is non-partisan, independent, policy-centered and community-minded.

Original article: Technology-Driven Education in New Jersey: More than Child's Play