We all know kids gravitate toward screens.
"During the summer I'd be on my game all day and my parents would be like, 'get off of it,'" said Juan Delgado, a fourth grader at the Hogg New Tech Center in Oak Cliff.
It's an elementary school where there are screens just about everywhere you look. And while some research tells us screens aren't always the best for our kids' brains, well, these kids seem to be giving themselves a workout while learning about angles.
"This is easy!," said Abdul Dheyasi, a fourth grader who is a whiz with his protractor.
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Abdul and his classmate Damian Torres were working independently on a 70-inch monitor but were able to quickly and easily help one another if they stumbled.
At the same time, the same problems and same lesson are being worked on in a small group of students sitting with the teacher, and at desks all around the classroom for kids like Juan Delgado who prefers to work alone without distractions.
"This is an acute angle because it's less than 90 degrees," Delgado explained. We asked if it's more than 90 degrees, what is it? Without hesitation, he said, "it's an obtuse."
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This system they're using, they developed it. Their principal was surfing online one weekend.
"I came across a thing called Samsung Flip, and so, I clicked on it," said Jairo Casco, principal at Hogg New Tech.
It was designed for conference rooms in corporate workspaces. But Casco had an idea and clicked the button for more information.
"I got a call from Jersey and he said, 'What do you need?' I said, 'Can you send me a demo please?' 'OK, what business?' 'No, it's a school," recalled Casco of his call with a salesperson from Samsung.
Samsung sent a device and was so impressed with how the school used them, they cut the price of the system drastically. They also shipped more devices than they ordered, for free, and partnered with the Dallas school to help put more technology in their hands. Samsung then started to market this device to schools, something they hadn't previously thought of doing.
It was all thanks to the principal's vision and lack of fear of embracing technology.
"One of the characteristics is they're intertwined with screens; the virtual world versus the real world. Why are we going to battle against that?" Casco said. "Let's embrace it. Use if for the positive. It's getting results. They're learning and love it."
