A working group that's looking at the issue has visited the Apple corporate headquarters as well as schools already running such programs in Huntsville, Alabama, and in Coppell, Texas, a Dallas suburb, school system chief of staff Russell Dyer told town school board members Tuesday night.
Collierville's tech study committee is dubbed the Digital Learning Implementation Working Group and is expected to give recommendations to the school board this spring.
Dyer said many Collierville students and teachers already make extensive use of technology. But he said giving each student in certain grades their own device could change the learning process for the better. For instance, students in a science class could run experiments and enter data on handheld devices, and the teacher could watch their entries in real time.
Such technology wouldn't come cheap. At Tuesday's meeting, Dyer said installing new wireless equipment would cost about $800,000 and that buying devices for all students in grades four, five, six and seven would cost the system $2.5 million. He said afterward that this was just a hypothetical example and that the committee hasn't yet decided which grade levels should get the devices.
But he said it matters. "For me, it's digital citizenship," he said, adding that schools must train students that using technology isn't some separate thing that they do, but rather, that "it's just part of what we are." And he said students need to know how to use technology to enhance their learning and improve their lives. "Because that's what's going to be expected of them in a business down the road."
The working group will focus its efforts on Apple devices, already in wide use within the suburb's school system, Dyer said. The school system aims to solidify plans as the board moves toward its budget season, Superintendent John S. Aitken said.
Collierville's tech study committee is dubbed the Digital Learning Implementation Working Group and is expected to give recommendations to the school board this spring.
Dyer said many Collierville students and teachers already make extensive use of technology. But he said giving each student in certain grades their own device could change the learning process for the better. For instance, students in a science class could run experiments and enter data on handheld devices, and the teacher could watch their entries in real time.
Such technology wouldn't come cheap. At Tuesday's meeting, Dyer said installing new wireless equipment would cost about $800,000 and that buying devices for all students in grades four, five, six and seven would cost the system $2.5 million. He said afterward that this was just a hypothetical example and that the committee hasn't yet decided which grade levels should get the devices.
But he said it matters. "For me, it's digital citizenship," he said, adding that schools must train students that using technology isn't some separate thing that they do, but rather, that "it's just part of what we are." And he said students need to know how to use technology to enhance their learning and improve their lives. "Because that's what's going to be expected of them in a business down the road."
The working group will focus its efforts on Apple devices, already in wide use within the suburb's school system, Dyer said. The school system aims to solidify plans as the board moves toward its budget season, Superintendent John S. Aitken said.