PAMPLICO, SC (WBTW) – One more week of summer–that’s all Pee Dee students have left to enjoy before classes start back August 15. One Florence school district is taking a big step into the future of education.
An HP laptop computer–that’s what Florence Two students in grades 6 through 12 were given during registration last week.The Superintendent of the district said he believes that technology and learning should go hand in hand.
“I don’t use paper books anymore,” said Kipp Turner, father of 5 students in Hannah Pamplico schools. He can easily see why the district wants students to have access to computers. “I do most of my reading from a tablet,” he said.
The computers and tablets are the result of an over $900,000 grant to the district which allowed them to buy close to 700 laptops for student use. Superintendent Neal Vincent was the one who wrote that grant after realizing the promise similar programs had shown around the state.
“It worked well,” Vincent noted. “You can use all types of apps and programs to provide descriptive lessons.”
In addition to the laptops, Vincent says the district also used several federal mini-grants to purchase 280 Google Chromebooks for all students in grades 3-5. Unlike their older classmates though, the younger crowd will keep its Chromebooks at school–at least for this year while the program is tested.
The superintendent said teachers can now use technology to bring the worlds, languages, cultures, and ideas right into the classroom via the internet.
Vincent said teachers and students alike are even more excited to start the year learning with their new tools. Kipp Turner said for his five kids, the joy was palpable.
“There was a lot of excitement that was obvious,” he said.
And while there’s still a week til school starts, News 13 caught up with some students already hard at work–on the gridiron preparing for the coming Friday night lights–to get their opinion on the new laptops.
“We can use them to write papers and do schoolwork,” noted Easton Tanner, senior. “It’ll be a lot easier than writing and papers getting lost.”
