SPRINGDALE -- Every student will have computer access every day by December in the Springdale School District, according to a report presented to the school board Tuesday night.
That is an accelerated timeline, said Clay Hendrix, associate superintendent for curriculum, instruction and technology.
School calendar
Board members approved a calendar for the 2016-2017 school year that gives students the full week off during Thanksgiving. School will start Aug. 17 for students and the last day of school for students will be May 25, barring snow days. More than half the nearly 1,200 teachers voting on the change picked the full week break. School board members balked at the change at first. Springdale has traditionally had a partial week for Thanksgiving.
Source: Staff report
The initial goal was to have technology for every child by December 2017. Third- through 12th-grade students will use Chromebooks and kindergarten through second-grade students will use iPad minis at school.
Hendrix' report stated 8,638 Chromebooks are in use across the school district. Most are wheeled from classroom to classroom on carts. Currently, even the younger elementary students use the Chromebooks, but they will change to the iPad minis once they arrive. There are about 15,000 students in grades that will use the Chromebooks, Hendrix said.
Elementary students will be assigned to the same computer all day and it will be kept in the teacher's classroom. High school students will pick up their assigned computers each morning before class and return them to the laptop cart before leaving. The additional technology may require some policy changes, Hendrix said. The Chromebooks will be checked out like a library book, he said.
The project was paid for with Race to the Top money. About $18 million of the Race To The Top money was designated for technology and $2 million of that will be spent training teachers how to get the most out of the computers in their classrooms.
Lakeside Junior High piloted a program with a ratio of one computer for each student and 40 teachers from Lakeside are involved in a two-year comprehensive program through eMINTs, a University of Missouri program known as enhancing Missouri's Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies. They will learn to draw questions out of children while teaching on computers, Hendrix said.
There will be training for all teachers this year, Hendrix said, including one-day workshops, after-school meetings and a summer technology institute.
"Springdale is the leader in technology in the state," Hendrix said
The rollout will be finished by December 2015 but the training will continue, he said.
Teachers, administrators and students have to be trained before computers will be effective in the classroom said Megan Witonski, assistant superintendent, after the board meeting.
Students have to learn how to use a computer. They'll need to learn what teachers expect them to do and the rules of the road. Everyone will need the same technology vocabulary. When a teacher says to find an enter button or use one click, students need to know what that is, she said.
NW News on 03/11/2015