For English students of the 21st century, the concept of composing essays and research papers written by the humble fountain pen on a blank sheet of lined white paper is as foreign to them as using an abacus for math.

In this emerging era of cloud computing, keeping children in tune with the latest and greatest technology is as high a priority as ever for the administration with Dowagiac Union Schools. The need has become so essential for students that district leadership has laid out a simple goal for itself in the coming years — to provide one computer for each of its fifth through 12th grade students enrolled in a writing instruction classroom.

The administration will begin making strides toward achieving that lofty goal next year, as it plans to introduce more than 400 new Chromebook laptop computers to elementary, middle school and high school English classrooms next year.

These new devices will join the 190 of these web-powered devices that have been deployed over the last five years at Dowagiac Middle School and Union High School, said Superintendent Paul Hartsig.

Each of the district’s six school buildings will receive at least two carts filled with 30 Chromebooks, which are low-powered laptops that run exclusively internet-based programs, designed by the search engine giant Google. With the district already heavily invested in using Google’s email and document services, these devices were a good fit for the district’s classrooms, Hartsig said.

“We’re trying to make sure that [students] are up to date with the latest technology,” he said.

The push to purchase these devices came from a meeting held at the beginning of the school year, where members of the district’s English language arts departments expressed an interest in using more Chromebooks into their curriculum. Administrators have since been purchasing these devices using grant and allotments from the curriculum budget, Hartsig said.

“As the need arose, and money became available, we felt this was a good time to do it,” he said.

In addition to serving as a platform for students to write reports, creative works or other English assignments, the computers make it easier for students to do research for class, Hartsig said. They also will potentially cut down on expenses for paper, as a greater number of teachers allow their students to submit papers for grade online instead of having them printed off.

By providing English classrooms with their own carts, it will also free up availability inside of each of the district’s existing computer labs, Hartsig said.

“English classrooms have a high need for research and writing,” he said. “They’re always using our labs and equipment. By giving them their own cart, we relieve the pressure of our computer labs so that other classes can use them for their curriculum.”

The district will host another meeting at the beginning of next year to access the technology needs of its science classrooms, Hartsig said. The leadership hopes to continue to make strides toward its ultimate goal — of having one device per student in each classroom in every building.

“It’s what the kids are used to,” Hartsig said. “They’re used to computers, to using technology. They’re going to be using these devices for the rest of their lives, so for us to use them as a tool in their education will benefit them down the road as well.”