Rep. John Ratcliffe got a first-hand look Monday at the Apple technology being used in an area school, getting down on the carpet with two students who demonstrated what they could do with the devices.
Braylon Stephens and Jadavion Johnson, who are both in Bryana Fountain's class at the Theron Jones Early Literacy Center, used a projector and an iPad to retell a story they had learned to Texas' District 4 congressman.
"It's just an amazing experience," Ratcliffe said. "It's just great to see Apple bring technology to students and teachers at this school, to be teaching the basic skills and giving them the opportunity to work with the very best technology in the world."
Funding for the devices came from a 2015 grant from Apple and ConnectEd, an initiative announced in 2013 by former President Barack Obama to enrich K-12 education for every student in America. Apple has supported ConnectEd by committing $100 million to 114 schools across the nation.
At Theron Jones, each teacher received a Mac laptop, each classroom an Apple TV and each student an iPad. That 1:1 technology ratio is something Ratcliffe, who serves as the chairman of the House Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Subcommittee, says is needed to prepare students for the future.
"Increasingly, we live in an Internet-connected world with more Internet-connected devices and it's so important that we have young students like those here at Theron Jones, to have the opportunity to have access to that technology that they're going to need and be able to use to contribute to our economy and to our society for the rest of their lives," he said. "All those things working together to create an amazing work environment that is Internet-connected for the students here. There's no price you can put on that."
Theron Jones Principal Melodie White said the students have had their iPads for two years, with the first year spent upgrading the Wi-Fi and wired access points in the school. She said teachers, including Fountain, now have the ability to take a lesson to the next digital and technological level.
"I'm just excited for my students and the opportunity they will have to be successful in the future based on the one-on-one in their hands," she said. "It's an opportunity everybody doesn't have, so it just puts them one up on some of the other students they're in competition with in TISD and Texarkana and across the country. It just gives them an advantage they would not have without the Apple grant."
Westlawn Elementary School also received the computer equipment through the five-year grant.