BENTONVILLE — Twenty-nine additional classrooms will begin the new school year in August with an emphasis on technology.
The School District will provide enough iPads or laptop computers for each student in those classrooms as part of its 21st Century Technology initiative. Targeted classrooms in kindergarten through second grade will receive iPads; classrooms in third grade and higher will receive laptops, said Judy Marquess, district director of staff development. Each classroom also will receive a charging cart.
The past school year was the first year of the technology initiative. Twenty grants worth nearly $500,000 were distributed last year; another 29 grants for the 2013-14 school year were announced last month. About 70 teachers applied for the grants this year.
Teachers who received the most recent grants are in training this week on how to integrate the devices with their curriculum.
Technology skills are embedded within the new Common Core curriculum, Marquess said.
In addition to providing the technology grants, the district is implementing a “Bring Your Own Device” policy this fall permitting students to bring their own laptops, netbooks and tablets to school.
“Between having classroom sets of technology and Bring Your Own Device, we are building up the resources to meet these goals that are in Common Core,” Marquess said. “It’s also about rethinking the pedagogy that has been public schools for the last 50 years, to really bring in these skills for critical thinking.”
To pay for the classroom technology this year, the district is using $500,000 of surplus bond money and $100,000 provided by the Bentonville Public Schools Foundation.
“Technology is an important trend in education, and the foundation is committed to supporting the district’s efforts on this front,” said Brandie Perry, foundation chairwoman.
The School Board approved the $500,000 appropriation last month by a 6-1 vote. Grant Lightle was the only board member who voted against it.
“My primary reason for voting ‘no’ was the high cost and its impact on our overall budget,” Lightle wrote in an email Wednesday. “I also objected to the lack of detailed information on the content of the expenditure or fair lead time for the board to analyze the spending request.”
The Bring Your Own Device policy, combined with cheaper devices constantly becoming available to students and families, might make it less necessary for the district to furnish technology devices, Lightle said.
The board committed to providing $500,000 per year for five years for the technology program.
In the program’s first year, administrators were surprised younger students grasped the technology much easier than the ones in junior high school and high school, Marquess said.
“We found elementary students were much more open to getting in and exploring the device and figuring out how to make it work on their own,” she said. “We might think older kids are more tech-savvy, but we can’t assume that. We have to start with the basics.”