SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane students saw the arrival of new technology for the 2019-2020 school year.
The district is incorporating laptops into students’ daily lessons.
“Teachers use them as a part of their lesson planning for doing student work and during the school day. So we’re rolling that out throughout the district,” said Brian Coddington, spokesperson for Spokane Public Schools.
The devices were already in most middle and high schools, but are now arriving in elementary schools.
Coddington said this is to help prepare students for a technology-driven future.
“Students will go into college, into the military, into trade school, technical school. All of those different things use technology no matter what field you go into,” he said.
Students use a secured login from schools that will give them access to their learning materials in their classes.
“They’ll be learning the keyboard so that they’re prepared for standardized testing. It becomes essential as they move into middle and high school that they’re able to research…and make presentations,” said Todd Herold, a third grade teacher at Garfield Elementary.
Coddington said every classroom in the district should have laptops by the end of the school year.
Kindergarten through second grade classes will use learning programs with webcams to increase student interactivity in classes, Coddington said.
Spokane elementary schools will also receive AED devices at each location.
Coddington said this addition is to help schools stay up to date with health and safety measures.
“It’s just a way to have access to that technology that if someone had a heart condition and really needed that in a hurry, they’ll be able to access that,” he said.
He said the AED devices will be installed by the end of September.
The following video is a report on increased security and safety measures at Spokane Public Schools.