Minot Middle School Allows Technology In The Classroom | Video

Julie Leonardi | 3/13/2013

This generation is all about technology and adults may struggle to wrap their heads around the power of electronic devices. One Minot middle school has decided to embrace smartphones and tablets in their school and hopefully use them in a positive way.

Jim Hill Middle School used to have a strict policy on cell phones; they must be put away in student`s locker at all times. But after recently surveying their 740 students, they found out almost all of them had some sort of smartphone or tablet of their own.

"With the budget, we don`t have enough laptops and iPads as a school district for all of our students. They already have them, so we really embraced the use of them.” said Assistant Principal Michael Arlien.

The administration made a choice to let their students carry their electronic devices on them at all times, as long as they were on silent, and being used for the right reasons.

"We do monitor it really closely to make sure that it`s used appropriately. We handle those isolated incidents when they are not used in that way."

Teachers and parents are beginning to understand how powerful these devices really are, students can actually be using them to learn.

"Some teachers are using them strictly for reading and research. Others are using them for math skills.”

The students love carrying their electronic devices to school and say it’s very convenient.

Jim Hill`s electronic device policy is very progressive, and they hope more schools realize the educational benefit of these gadgets. “We’d be doing a disservice to not have this discussion in school because of the potential benefits academically for these students.”

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