The executive director of Information Management Services and the OPS superintendent made the decision for high schools to have Surface Pro 3 tablets. Over 100 tablets arrived at Central around mid-December, with each costing $1,000.

“I think they are effective at making lessons in class more efficient and interesting,” Principal Ed Bennett said.

Math teacher Frances Keating and Family/Consumer Science teacher, Joseph DeMilt use the tablets on a daily bases . They are both travel throughout Central and the tablets are fast and convenient to use for the both of them. “It’s nice having it accessible right away,” DeMilt said.

Keating didn’t use the tablet very often before. “I felt like I couldn’t do it, I wasn’t confident in technology,” Keating said. However, now that she has begun using it, she definitely plans on using it more.

“I love them, it’s a great edition to be more prepared for class,” DeMilt said.

The features on the tablet such as, OneNote and the Classroom Dashboard make it easy and accessible for both the students and teachers to assignments and access classroom notes whenever they need them, which Keating plans on using soon.

“My goal is always to make to students experience to be the best it can possible be,” Bennett said. Dr. Bennett feels the edition of the tablets will help how Central is judged based on education.

Keating and DeMilt both agree it was a good idea to purchase the tablets for education, “But I think it would’ve been smarter to be given them in the summer,” Keating said, so teachers could get them figured out.

The tablets are easily hand accessible in the classroom and Keating has noticed that “students are more attentive and a student that is struggling I can be right there next to them.”

Keating and DeMilt’s only complications with the tablets are the connectivity and sometimes it freezes up.

These tablets will truly determine if this was a valuable purchase if there are “increased test scores and analyze effectiveness by student behavior, scores and participation,” Bennett said.

Keating said, “The only reason people don’t use the tablets is because they’re afraid to change.” The Surface Pro 3 tablets should be used by teachers to encourage education because as Keating said, “If we as educators are afraid to change then we are belittling the younger population.”