Mineola High School students Sanskriti Bimal and Marina Iodice recently had a unique opportunity to join the NYS Commissioner of Education MaryEllen Elia, and students from several other school districts, in a special virtual lunch.
The commissioner led an informal conversation on technology in the classroom and garnered student feedback on the positives and negatives of it, as well as how teachers are using it to support instruction. Bimal and Iodice were joined by others from the Albany City School District, Poughkeepsie City School District and Wayne-Finger Lakes P-Tech. They were able to learn more about how other schools use technology, as well as offer input on how it has helped students in Mineola.
“We use our iPads everyday and do our homework, tests and study on them,” said Iodice. “The whole school environment is on our iPads so we’re a little bit more advanced than some of the other districts.”
“It was cool to hear how other people are using technology in the classrooms,” Bimal said. “By the end I thought it was cool I was a student in Mineola. I saw how advanced we were in comparison to other schools.”
High school principal Whittney Smith said the district has been able to use technology to help students learn valuable life skills.
“Technology is the accelerator,” Smith said. “The real push is the teach kids critical thinking, collaboration and creativity. Technology helps prepare students to possess those skills.”