LMS students to use tablet

Published 3:18 pm Friday, June 29, 2012

Langley Middle School will look like the school of the future this fall. Seventh-grade students, about 125 of them across the South Whidbey School District, are set to have iPads for school use.

Board member Fred O’Neal asked district technology director David Pfeiffer about the teachers’ preparation to utilize the devices. Pfeiffer said teachers trained during the school year and will receive additional instruction in August.

O’Neal recalled issues the Kent School District had with a similar laptop program several years ago. Kent schools used the laptops as behavioral incentives.

“That was a privilege, having that laptop, and it could be taken away for several reasons,” O’Neal said. “I really recommend where we do something like that where students get their ‘driver’s license’ and earn the laptop.”

The duration students will retain the iPads is not known. Board members and school principals at the board’s business meeting June 27 said they hoped students keep the iPads through eighth grade, when a renewal cycle begins to purchase a new group of tablets.