PINEVILLE — A panel met on Friday to unveil to the public the new technologies implemented in Bell County Schools. State Representative Rick Nelson joined school Superintendent George Thompson, New Wave Communications representatives Mike Cathers & Mike Bookout, Bell County Schools Chief Information Officer David Smith, Grant Writer Gina Johnson, Technology Resource Teacher and District Assessment Coordinator Chris Warren and Kindergarten Teacher Jennifer Wilder.
“The point that we want to get across to parents and the public is that this new technology will transform the way these kids learn,” Superintendent Thompson said, “This is a quantum leap compared to how we were operating a few years ago. These learning experiences we’re providing these kids will make them competitive in the world they’ll live and work in. That was our vision all along, to put the technology in the hands of the kids.”
If technology truly is “the great equalizer”, then the Bell County School district has leveled the playing field.
Bell County students will have at their fingertips a progressively technical and entirely new learning toolbox when they return to school on Wednesday. From interactive white boards, that function much like a giant tablet computer at the head of the classroom, equipped with EasyTech software, a resource that Warren says “compliments whatever a teacher may be teaching”; to an internet/ network connection through fiber, increasing the capacity of existing technologies exponentially.
“We’ve gone from a two lane highway to a 12-lane complex interstate system, in just two years,” Thompson said, metaphorically comparing the technology capacity in it’s previous state 2 years ago, to now.
Not only have chalkboards been replaced with digital interactive whiteboards, but teachers have at their disposal “Encyclomedia”, an interactive software that provides them with an onslaught of resources, in one easily accessible spot.
425 new computers are sitting in labs and classrooms throughout the district. Interestingly, these are Macintosh computers, secured through a cancer research program implemented by the University of Louisville.
“Every coal county had the same opportunity with this,” Representative Nelson said of the program, paid for with various funding, including coal severance tax dollars. “Bell County is in the lead with the number of computers they’ve gotten and have up and running.”
Not only do the 425 new computers provide student with the different experience of using a mac computer, but these are “data seam” computers, utilized for cancer research. Each one computes cancer research data continuously, and each one is connected back to the University of Louisville cancer research center.
“As a cancer survivor, I am proud to say that my school system is doing something meaningful to aid cancer research,” Jennifer Wilder said.
The new data seam computers aren’t the only way that Bell County Schools plan to give back to a bigger community. The EasyTech software, that interactively walks students through the in’s and out’s of computer technology is being made available to parents and faculty. This program allows students, both young and old, to work at their own pace, learning such things as the how-to’s of a spread sheet.
While the school district boasts of a “kids to computers” ratio of 2:1, with over 1,500 computers in schools throughout the district, they still seek ways to make technology more accessible. Through the Instrument Device Upgrade project, students and faculty will soon be able to purchase computers at a reduced price.
“Our vision is that every child would have laptop or tablet PC access as routinely as they have access to paper and pencil,” Thompson stated.
While increased access oftentimes means increased exposure to the outside world, parents can rest-assured that their children are safe, according to school officials. “I can truly say, I believe that there’s nowhere [students] can go to use the internet and be safer,” Thompson said.
Computers in the district will default to “Internet 2" as soon as October, a version of the internet based on academia that excludes the traditional dangers of the conventional world wide web. “If they’re online here, they’re on a safer internet,” CIO David Smith stated.
“Our board of education has been visionary in bringing this technology into our schools,” Thompson said, “And the great beneficiaries are the children.”
Brandy L. Murray is a Staff Writer for the Daily News. She can be reached via e-mail at bmurray@middlesborodailynews.com.
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