Gerald Elementary School (GES) has pushed to lead the way in the Gasconade County R-2 School District to limit technology use in the classrooms at the kindergarten through third-grade levels.

Superintendent Dr. Staci Johnson told the board of education during the Sept. 21 meeting that they were trying to solve two problems when they decided to move toward limiting technology for early grades.

“One, we noticed there was a huge fine motor issue with our kindergartners in using Chromebooks,” Johnson began. “A lot of them just, they’re not developed enough to use a keyboard, and that was interfering with them taking diagnostics and doing those types of things.”

Teachers and leaders at GES decided part of the solution was to limit technology use for kindergarten, first and second grade classrooms.

“(They) are doing more hands-on, low-tech activities,” Johnson said. “Having the iPads as a device that is used for diagnostic testing and is used for 45 minutes or less a week for students to do their My Path. Other than that, they’re doing a lot of low technology in the classroom.”

Students are taken to technology labs to access the iPads when they need to use them.

“We’re really excited about seeing how that impacts their learning,” Johnson said. “It’s been a good, good transition.”