Technology for Every Student on the Cheap!

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My Students

Hands-on science rules the day in my classroom. Students learn in the laboratory and outside in nature, observing changes in states of matter from liquid nitrogen, and measuring erosion in their neighborhood creek. In technology, however, our school has fallen desperately behind the 21st century.

Without seeing our students or knowing their background, a visitor to our school might mistake it for an affluent campus.

Our students come from the very neediest background in a neighborhood that has long been negligent of providing its children with a bright future. About 90% of our students are economically disadvantaged. For many kids, the only meals they have every day are the two they enjoy at school. When first walking through our doors, students lack the materials, the background knowledge, even the clothes necessary to establish a safe learning environment. Soon, thereafter, they receive all that and more in their second home at school. Our solution is not the mindless drudgery and drilling of many low-income schools. Students explore the world around them, discover the joys of learning, and collaborate with their peers. Our school's faculty is passionately dedicated to providing the very best education for our society's very neediest children.

My Project

While our school has many successes, we have fallen dangerously behind in our technological resources. The computers we have in the classroom are 8 years old and function about as well as you would expect. The school shares some resources, such as iPads and netbooks, but has so few that each teacher might only be able to reserve four or five at a time. In my experience, to have technology use thrive, the ability for EACH student to have their own device makes all the difference. Instead of having a small group on devices while the teacher needs to worry about "all the rest" of his/her students, the teacher can now design entire lessons and projects centered around technology for the entire classroom. Students will use their phones in many ways: going on photo safaris to encounter the science around them, shooting videos, instantly logging formative assessments responding to online blogs, performing virtual labs, and apps that make the ordinary engaging to the "plugged-in" generation.

The largest cost of this project (the 30 smartphones) has already been procured.

What remains, however inexpensive, is critical. Without batteries, charging and organization materials, this project simply can't be done. With only $300, a difference that would normally cost thousands of dollars can be made. This isn't some project where a few kids will share a tablet or two. This is the chance to create a digital revolution for EVERY student in a class of some of America's neediest children.