Students in Portland, Maine, may soon be at the forefront of the educational technology movement, reported the Forecaster. Recently, the district superintendent asked the School Department to purchase iPads for the East End Community School.
The new tablets may help educators solve longstanding problems faced in the classroom, stated the media outlet. At the EECS, a significant number of students come from backgrounds in which English is not the primary language spoken, prompting educators to try inventive techniques to reach their ESL pupils. For many, the answer may lie with the proposed iPad purchases.
"We would be able to cross language barriers like we’ve never done before," Marcia Gendron, EECS's principal, told the news source.
If the iPad initiative is a success, the floodgates may open for other technology initiatives. Currently, EECS gets $1.8 million from the federal government each year. Therefore, teachers may petition the school board to use this money to buy more technology, such as an e-reader, an ESL computer program or a
DLP projector.
Furthermore, teachers at the school told the Forecaster the iPads will likely create greater collaboration between classroom activities and the home environment, enhancing student learning in both.
