Paul Upchurch considers the amount of research which claims that school students benefit from the use of technology, combined with research stating that technology creates a distraction in the classroom, to be “overwhelming.” Upchurch is the Superintendent for Oldham County School District in Louisville, KY.
“We are trying to create 21st- century learners, and while technology is an evitable part of that, we need to be purposeful,” he said, of his district’s recent purchase of several iPads and iPods to use in its classrooms. The growing popularity of online higher education has created a need to introduce students to education technology at a younger age.
Each school in the district – elementary, middle, and high – was given $15,000 to purchase the new technology. Groups of students in several classes are serving as guinea pigs and using the new devices to determine ways in which a student’s daily education benefits from the use of technology. Upchurch describes the process as “a bit of an experiment.”
A possibly surprising fact is that elementary students have made the most progress by using their new technology tools. Each student in Jenna Brown’s fourth grade class has his or her own iPad to use throughout the day. Diane Morgan, principal, chose this class to participate in the technology trial run because of the “appreciation and talent for technology” that Brown shows.
Morgan is interested to see the extent to which Brown and other teachers can find usefulness for new technology in their classrooms. In time, she hopes to be able to see whether or not the benefits of these forms of technology outweigh the price, which can be steep. Brown’s class has been using the iPads since October, primarily for reading.