“Moments after her daughter worked on writing and pronouncing letters on an iPad 2 Thursday, Natasha Landry said she was happy the Auburn School Committee voted to give kindergartners the tablet computers in the fall,” Bonnie Washuk reports for The Sun Journal. “‘It makes it easier for teachers to teach a larger group of kids, one on one, without having more teachers,’ Landry said in the hall of Washburn Elementary School.”
Washuk reports, “The $200,000 cost for the iPad 2 tablets will be less than hiring more teachers, she said. ‘It probably would take four teachers to do what the computers can do with one teacher.’ Landry was also fine with a 5 percent hike in the school budget, even though it would mean her property taxes would go up, if the budget is approved in a May 10 referendum. ‘If we don’t try to keep up, our kids are going to fall behind,’ she said.”
Washuk reports, “Washburn Elementary School Principal Holly Couturier was ‘ecstatic’ about the vote. ‘I’ve seen myself the few students who have used iPads with [teacher] Mauri Dufour, and the gains they’ve made,’ she said. ‘If they can make those gains in a relatively short amount of time, I can’t imagine where the kindergarten students are going to be at this time next year.'”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Harry B.” for the heads up.]