With technology constantly changing, the Mount Airy City Board of Education is looking at what is feasible for the school system to purchase for its students.

The latest item of interest, which was the topic of discussion at Tuesday night’s meeting, is the iPod Touch. The iPod Touch would provide students with immediate access to numerous sources of information through the more than 85,000 available applications.

“Conducting research is instantaneous. They are going to find the sources they need,” said Sandy George, principal at Mount Airy High School. “The books need to be a resource and only a resource, not the tool. There’s just so much more that can meet the individual needs.”

“It comes down to children needing to be engaged to learn. It’s the way it engages not only students, but teachers as well,” added Joey Hearl, principal at Mount Airy Middle School. “The bottom line is it’s the way our kids learn. You won’t understand it until you can see for yourself the realm of learning that’s out there.”

Dr. Darrin Hartness, superintendent, showed the board the results of a survey recently conducted of third through 12th graders in the city school system. According to that survey, 83.7 percent of those students have computer access at home, 76.9 percent of them have Internet access at home, 49.7 percent have wireless Internet access at home and 72.4 percent of them have a cell phone.

Hartness said that allowing the students to have access to that information will allow teachers to teach them how to dig for the right sources and how to weed through the information to determine what is accurate and what is important.

“I would like to see us give our teachers and students the tools that can take us to the next level,” he said. “Our students are used to learning in a different environment than we learned. I think we can do this.”

One possibility for the implementation of iPod Touches is to provide each students with an iPod Touch and then provide laptop carts for use for group work and presentations.

“I definitely believe we need to look at this seriously,” said Phil Thacker, board member, after extensive discussion about the pros and cons of using this technology.

The next step that the board will take is to set up a meeting with representatives from Apple to determine if this is a feasible undertaking for the school system.

George also spoke to the board about Advanced Placement (AP) and honors courses offerings at the high school. She, and the faculty at the school, are looking into expanding the offerings for these classes. She would like to see four honors courses added to the curriculum and two AP courses added. According to George, she believes there are faculty members at the school now who could teach these classes, eliminating the need to hire additional faculty. She also wants to see the honors classes offered in the career and technical education track increased to courses that are relevant and that the students want.

Contact Morgan Wall at mwall@mtairynews.com or 719-1929.