Truman Students More Engaged With New Technology in Classroom

The 's curriculum and technology committee got an update Monday from several teachers about how they use technology in the classroom since the debut of Teaching and Learning 2014, or TL2014, the district's ambitious new technology program that debuted in September. Middle school and high school students were issued laptops and elementary school students have greater access to comptuers.

"I'm very excited how TL2014 has enriched the lives of students at Truman," Principal Barbara Samide told the committee.

Third grade teacher Lori Fortunato said the students have shown a slight improvement in their overall performance with the new technology, and a tremendous improvement in their engagement.

Fortunato, along with teachers Jennifer Judd and Lori McGinley, said they have been concentrating on using technology in science classes.

"The students are very involved and very engaged in all of our lessons," Fortunato said.

The teachers said their lessons are interactive and often involve games, slideshows and video clips. In a lesson about weather, for example, the instructors ask students to click on photos of a weather event, such as a tornado. Students are then asked a question and required to click on the correct photo. Once the photo is clicked, the students can hear the sound of that weather event, such as wind or rain.

The teachers plan to focus on using more technology in their social studies classes next year.

Director of Data and Technology Randy Ziegenfuss said the number of laptop repairs has been fairly low.

Out of the six school districts in the Eastern Pennsylvania Consortium, Salisbury is the only district that is certified to perform its own laptop repairs, Ziegenfuss said, which is saving the district "a considerable amount of money." He said it helps keep the deductible at $50 compared to $100 in other districts.