It’s the age of technology. iPads dominate students’ backpacks. iPhones live in their pockets. iPods, whether teachers like it or not, are constantly finding their way into kids’ hands all day long. Through the years, technology has gained favor in the world.

Over the summer, TISD spent $115,000 on the journey toward a more tech-friendly future, with 175 additional wifi access points added to schools across the district. This means that more areas of the school are covered with an available internet signal. Currently, there are about 500 access points in the district, 92 of those right here on campus.

Thirty years ago, computers were rarely found in a person’s home let alone a school. Today, there is an abundance of computers as well as tablets and other computer-inspired devices.

The department of technology has been working on upgrading the school to an open-wifi system. This will allow students to connect to the school’s internet legally with their own laptops, tablets, iPods, or smart phones under the supervision of a teacher.

If used responsibly, technology can be a very helpful tool in the development of an education curriculum. “Responsibly” is the key word here. The same web filters that are available for every laptop and computer in the district will also affect students’ devices. That means no Facebook.

The department of technology is working on a project, however, that would allow teachers and staff to access social media sites through district devices and computers while still maintaining the same internet safety for students.

The department is also working on a way to make YouTube more available to the classroom, as educational videos are often a useful tool in school.

Thomas Brawley, head of TISD’s department of technology, envisions the future classroom as a learning center where teachers are “not lecturers, but facilitators” of devices, where research on multiple subjects would make the learning process easier and faster.

THS currently owns 147 student laptops – you know, the ones that are rolled around in the big blue carts. There are a total of seven of these carts in the school, and about 15 iPads on a cart in the library.

Devices such as the iPad are still evolving, and they still cannot replace the good, old-fashioned desktop computer. This is because tablets and smartphones still do not have the ability to create.

Sure, there are some useful apps out there, but until programs such as Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, or Excel become available on these devices as well, computers will remain the most efficient and favored device for productivity.