By Andy Dahn

BLOOMINGTON – Younger generations of students that spend a great deal of time with technology can now use it for more academic purposes.

District 87 schools are adding more technological programs to their curriculum. While students can use Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat outside of the classroom, they can earn online badges for skills like literature and take courses on digital coding inside the classroom. The changes are needed, Superintendent Barry Reilly said, because it’s what students know best. He added that partnerships with community organizations like Frontier help provide low income students with internet access outside of school, allowing them to keep up with a variety of online academics.

“That’s important because it allows kids to have a level playing field,” Reilly said. “When they go home, they have access to get to the curriculum and do the neat things that you saw tonight. To me, all of those things are coming together at the right time.”

Reilly said students becoming more and more tech savvy make the implementation of technological programs and internet access even more important.

“They expect it,” said Reilly. “They have it at home in a lot of cases. In some cases, they don’t. We’re a district that, as you know, has a very significant low income population. Our ability to supply that to our kids is very important.”

The district feels they’re doing a good job with the technological curriculum. Reilly and numerous staff members praised the district during Wednesday night’s meeting for being at the forefront of technological education for district students of all ages. Programs like Online Badges and courses from the Arts for Life program were highlighted, but Reilly said many more will become possible as time goes on.

Andy Dahn can be reached at [email protected].