Miami-Dade Schools Launching Website for Parents To Buy Digital Gadgets By Ari
Odzer | Tuesday, Nov 26, 2013 | Updated 10:19 AM EST
Just in time for Black
Friday shopping madness, the Miami-Dade public schools are launching
www.wifi.dadeschools.net, a website where parents can go for shopping tips. NBC
6's Ari Odzer reports.
At iPrep Academy in Miami,
every student is issued a laptop. Think of it as the future for every school.
“Textbooks are being phased
out,” said Sylvia Diaz, the Miami-Dade County Public Schools' assistant
superintendent.
Her boss, Superintendent of
Schools Alberto Carvalho, who is also principal of iPrep Academy, is a digital
learning evangelist.
“The convergence from a
traditional textbook to digital content is a must,” Carvalho says. “This is no
longer a question of whether or not this will be done, the question is, when
will we have this done.”
So even if you don’t know
the difference between a rhombus and a school bus, you can see the handwriting
on the wall: the Miami-Dade school district is extending WiFi coverage to every
school, trying to put laptops or tablets in every student’s hands.
“They seek information and
they manage information very, very different from the way we did, we now need
to create education environments that replicate, mimic their lifestyle,”
Carvalho said, sitting in a classroom at iPrep, amidst students working on
their laptops, some of them sitting on couches and bean bags.
Now, just in time for Black
Friday shopping madness, the Miami-Dade schools are launching this
website: wifi.dadeschools.net. They
call it BYOD, or bring your own device. It’s a place for parents to go for
shopping tips.
“So this is like a 2 for 1,
buy a device, satisfy the holiday desires of your kids but also empower them
with a tool that they can use in school as we launch BYOD district-wide,”
Carvalho said.
Once you go to the website,
click on “minimum specifications.” You’ll find a table that lists the different
types of devices on the market, and if you scroll down you’ll see a table that
shows which devices can handle the programs that are currently used in the
Miami-Dade school district.
“I mean if you want to buy
an iPad, here’s some information about the type of iPad you should be buying,
or an Android, or a Windows device,” said Diaz.
Digital learning for all is
the model, and getting there is expensive but no longer a dream. The
superintendent said the bond issue passed by voters last year will help buy
about 140,000 laptops for families that can’t afford them, helping bridge the
digital divide.
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