The idea behind the plan for digital advancement is to foster a stronger understanding of the processes and tools in a modern work and higher education environment. Many classrooms have already been outfitted with interactive SMART boards--a Web based media computer and projector that allows students to benefit from a more tactile and visual approach to learning. This year board members are calling for more.
PDAs have been integrated into the county's school curriculum. Fourth graders across the county use the pocket computers to compose, calculate, and edit assignments "beamed" to them directly by teachers and shared amongst table mates. PDAs are relatively inexpensive. $300 can equip a student with a portable learning tool that provides an experience that would have been left to crowded computer labs only a year ago.
Monday night Superintendent Stephen Laws introduced the new techno-savy devices and outlined his campaign at the Stone Family Center for Performing Arts. The Technology in Education Challenge campaign will attempt to raise $3 million over the next three years. This year's goal is set at $1.5 million. Last night's technology roll-out gained several large commitments from the Mebane Foundation, Lowe's Home Improvement, and the Leonard Herring Foundation. Funds for the tech initiative will be provided by public and private contributions and partnerships.
Advancements in classroom technology will help attract teachers to the Wilkes County School system who have already witnessed firsthand the benefits of multi-media learning during their training in education, Wilkes administrators believe. Leading priorities for younger teachers include technological growth and environmental sustainability. "New teachers from university settings are accustomed to new media, so if we don't jump forward with them, they will have to move backwards in teaching methods," Dr. Laws explained.
Wanda Rutledge of Miller's Creek Elementary already appreciates a decline in paper waste brought about by the introduction of PDAs to her 4th grade classroom. Her students are excited by a learning form that resembles the video games they enjoy at home. Her class has been training in PDA usage since the first week of November 2006. Several of her students demonstrated their progress at the Challenge Monday night
Wilkes County has 22 schools this campaign will provide for: 13 elementary, four middle, four high schools and one career education center. Grades 3 through 8 will use PDAs and SMART boards in the classroom. Students in grades 9 through 12 will graduate to laptop learning. Every subject can benefit from these tools.
On display Monday were math classes familiarizing themselves with Excel spreadsheets, graphing, and computation methods. English teachers conducted "extreme makeovers" by group editing assignments for proper writing conventions. Spanish teachers and students labeled objects in a graphic household roomscene. And geography was made lively by access to programs like Google Earth and even a tracking program for glacial melting.
Expectations for the community are far reaching. The new emphasis in computer learning is hoped to create a new workforce adept at modern tool manipulation, attract new businesses, and engender an equal exchange of new ideas and concepts amongst students.
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