Over the last two years, Google piloted its Rolling Study Halls program, providing grants to help equip school buses with Wi-Fi and stripped-down laptops. Priscilla Calcutt, director of instructional technology for the Berkeley County School District in South Carolina, says the students who live in the more high-poverty areas of her district ride the bus for 90 to 120 minutes each direction. For them, “the Wi-Fi has been a great tool.” The district has filters in place that block certain websites and keywords on both the district-provided Chromebooks and kids’ handheld devices, “but they could play games if they wanted to on the bus on the way home,” Calcutt says. Or they can get a jump on the evening’s homework.
To incentivize enrichment over entertainment, Berkeley County instructional technologist Jessica Levine helped create “bus challenges” aligned with Achieve3000, a reading and writing instruction platform used by the district’s schools. Calcutt explains: “One of the bus challenges would be to read two articles from Achieve3000 and score 80 percent or higher on your quiz.” For tackling the extra work, students earn incentives such as badges, a dance or a pizza party. A virtual help desk, Levine says, allows kids to connect with teachers and ask questions about the challenges, or get help with other homework, all while in transit.
These innovations, aligned as they are with in-school work, function as a virtual analog of something academic research shows districts relying on busing often can’t adopt: extended learning programs such as longer school days. They also help level the playing field vis-a-vis children who have essentially cobbled that together by living close to school (they get after-school tutoring on site and hop on Achieve3000 from home, Calcutt says).
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