Bellwood-Antis first became a 1-to-1 learning environment in 2016, when the district purchased iPads for every student.
Students and teachers have had a love-hate relationship with the iPad, but there is no doubt that the technology has brought Bellwood into the 21st century.
Now, Bellwood-Antis’ Myers Elementary School is putting away the touch screens and switching to laptops.
Last summer, the school board approved a decision to purchase laptops for Myers students.
“The plan is to eventually phase the change in at all levels,” said Jason Corle, B-A’s interim technology coordinator.
Mrs. Kyley Longo-McGarvey, a tech coach in the district, said that for the older kids it’s beneficial because they will use laptops in their jobs when they get older.
For the younger kids, she said, it will be better for them because they will use them for the rest of their school years. The tech department said the plan is for the current kindergarteners through fourth graders to keep their laptops when they transition to middle school and ultimately to phase in laptops at every level.
Myers principal Mr. Stinson says that the first 2 months since the switch have been phenomenal, and the next step is to getting them up to the middle and high schools.
“W had some problems with the laptops cracking, s0 we did some tests with cases for the laptops and the cracks are gone,” Mr. Stinson said.
Mrs. Hoffer, an elementary school teacher reported that outside of some minor login issues, the change has been great.
In the upper levels, teachers are looking forward to the change.
“It’s going to be beneficia for all of the students because when they move on to college, this is the technology they will be using in class,” said English teacher Mr. Naylor. “You don’t see a lot of kids in a lecture taking notes on an iPad.”
