Schools

Walton County High School Students Begin Year With eSMART Technology

All Walton County Public Schools high school students will begin the new school year with an iPad.

When Walton County's high school students head to the classroom Wednesday, they will have an extra tool to help them succeed this year - an iPad.

The school system spent $1.5 million from the Education Local Option Sales Tax (ELOST) to ensure that each high student has an iPad at the start of the 2013/2014 school year. The equipment has been rolled out school-by-school prior to the start of the new school year, ending with Monroe Area High School on Friday.

"We made the decision to bring the digital classroom to our students," said Bryan Hicks, principal of Monroe Area High School. "The students just learn in a different way now and we needed to make sure that we engage them."

The students could opt to pay a $25 insurance fee and take the iPad home with them. If they chose not to do that, they still get an iPad issued to them, but need to leave it at the school. Parents and students at each high school in the county were invited to attend an orientation, learn what they needed to about the program, pay the insurance premium and pick up an iPad. Hicks said some members of the faculty had expressed some concern about issuing each student an iPad.

"We had to convince them it's not about the equipment, it's about the digital classroom and about how we engage the students - it's about the whole eSMART experience," Hicks said, adding that he was particularly excited about what it would bring to students from MAHS. "Some have not even had the opportunity to use this equipment and now they have the opportunity to learn with it."

eSMART stands for Engaging Students Through Mobile Access to Resources and teaching. Hicks said part of what convinced the school system to invest in the eSMART technology were studies that showed that it was particularly effective in engaging at-risk students.

MAHS junioir Brian Christian is one of the students who is tasked with helping other students with the new technology. He said not only is it a great opportunity for all the students, but as someone with plans to make a career out of information technology, it is especially beneficial to him.

"I want to major in computer science so it is going to help me get a jump start on that - and to be able to put it on my resume for my college applications," Christian said, adding the iPad gave all the students another resource in how they can now learn.

Walton County Pubic School spokesman Kim Embry said iPads are only issued to high school students this school year and next, but will be issued to  middle school students in another two years. 


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