Carroll Middle among 8 schools nationwide to win tablets

Teachers and students at Carroll Middle School in Raleigh received new tablets as part of a nonprofit pilot program.

Posted 10:26 p.m. Jan 20, 2015 — Updated 11:23 p.m. Jan 20, 2015

RALEIGH, N.C. — It was a teacher workday at Carroll Middle School in Raleigh on Tuesday, but the classrooms were packed with students excited to be there.

That’s because each teacher and student got a new tablet – complete with a data plan - donated by Verizon. The students will use the tablets at school and be allowed to take them home.

“I’m excited that we’re getting the tablets,” seventh-grader Josh Boisvert said.

Carroll Middle is one of just eight schools nationwide to be part of a pilot program by the nonprofit Digital Promise. The magnet school beat out dozens of other applicants because of its focus on leadership and technology.

“The schools always need to anticipate how we cover that gap for that last portion of students that don’t have that connectivity,” Wake County Public Schools Superintendent James Merrill said.

Eighth-grader Sierra Saunders said she can’t wait to use the tablet.

“We're going to do a lot of projects and stuff like that, use them in classrooms,” she said. “We get to watch videos they normally show on the screen, (but) instead of showing them on the screen, we'll do them on our tablets.”

Teachers trained for months to learn creative ways to integrate tablets into the classroom.

Seventh-grader Jack Burkhart started learning the second he unpacked his tablet. He said he’s most excited about using it for homework.

“We can do it on the tablet and not have all of our papers in our notebook,” he said.

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