© 2024 KRCU Public Radio
90.9 Cape Girardeau | 88.9-HD Ste. Genevieve | 88.7 Poplar Bluff
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Cape Girardeau High Schoolers Now Work With Tablets

Cape Girardeau Public Schools
Students at Cape Central try out the new tablets.

For the past three weeks students at Cape Central High School have included the digital world to their daily school life. For the cost of $400 each, 1200 Asus Transformer tablets were distributed to students and 100 to faculty members on January 8.

Sherry Copeland is an Assistant Superintendent for the Cape Girardeau Public Schools. She says 3rd grade students at Franklin elementary school have tablets as well. In August, 7th and 8th grades students will also receive the technology.

“The following August, so august of 2015, we will distribute the devices to 6th grades and then keep moving forward from there,”Copeland said.

The differences between the 3rd grade students’ devices and the high school students’ is that the 3rd graders are not allowed to take the tablets home with them. As far as security is concerned, all devices are engraved and tagged, and if stolen, students must file a police report.

Since certain websites such as Facebook are blocked thanks to the Cape Central High firewalls, students cannot access those on the tablets, making the devices used for educational purposes only. Nonetheless, both students and teachers love the devices and being able to work online.

“A lot of our teachers, I would say, were digital immigrants. Our students are digital natives. That’s where they’ve grown up, that’s where they learn best, so we are stepping up to meet our students needs,” Copeland said.

The faculty is trying to incorporate everything on the devices, who have the capacities of both a computer and a tablet, therefore reducing the need for books and paper.

Marine Perot was a KRCU reporter for KRCU in 2014.