GUILFORD COUNTY- If you ask Jed O'Donnell, principal of Kiser Middle School in Guilford County, he oversees the best middle school in the district -- a place he says technology and learning are encouraged from the beginning of the school year.
"From the moment our students enter the building at 7:45 to the moment that they leave at 3 p.m.,” said O'Donnell. “Technology is integrated as part of our curriculum."
His students, along with students from 27 other schools, will be getting some new tools next year, Lenovo laptops that have been battle tested for the school district. The Guilford County School Board agreed to a deal with Lenovo worth more than $10 million.
"We'll be serving 24 traditional schools and four special schools,” said Robin Britt, director of Instructional Technology at GCS. “You add in teachers and students, and we'll be just over 17,000 devices."
The Amplify tablets posed issues like slower performance and some overheated. Britt says an advantage of the new laptops will be the compatibility with the rest of the district's technology, along with the keyboard which allows students to type faster and see more on their screen.
O'Donnell says having a school district that will give his teachers the tools to teach has been inspiring, but now it's up the teachers and students to make the grade.
"It doesn't drive the curriculum, learning drives the curriculum. However, it's a very important tool to allow the students to show us what they have learned at the end of the day," said O'Donnell.
The new laptops will be rolled out in fall 2016.