Future CK schools could replace traditional book-filled libraries with technology centers instead. Board members discussed the idea – one that a Bothell high school is trying out – at their board meeting March 25.

Board member Eric Greene favored the high-tech approach.

“The traditional library … is fast going away,” Greene said.

CKSD capital projects manager Robin Shoemaker noted that North Creek school under construction in Bothell “doesn’t really have a traditional library at all.” It uses a technology center instead.

Greene said that technology and non-traditional teaching methods should be embraced by schools. He said current uses of technology – such as reading text on a computer instead of reading the same text in a book – didn’t go far enough.

“If you’re using the technology and you’re putting a digital textbook out there on a computer where you click on a link and it takes you to a picture or a video or whatever all you’re doing is you’re teaching your kids the same way … They’re still at a desk and they’re still doing it.”

Instead, Greene opined, learning could be more project-based.

Also, Greene said students should be allowed to use smartphones in the classrooms. He held up his own iPhone 6 phone while he spoke.

“The message out there is that if you’re not letting your kids use this (smartphone) in the classroom then you’re robbing the kids of a really useful resource. I know you don’t want them to (send text messages) … it comes down to trusting your kids,” Greene said.

Greene said people should not be afraid to take calculated risks to transform the way students are educated.

“If you think small you move in small increments. If you move in small increments these days you fall further behind because that’s how fast things are moving,” Greene said.

Board Vice President Jeanie Schultz borrowed Greene’s iPhone and held it up.

“This is the most antique, archaic technology our kids will ever know. This is their baseline,” Schultz said.

Technology such as smartphones should be encouraged, Schultz said, and using it could lead to fewer discipline issues and higher scores for students, she opined.

Greene cited a Mooresville Graded School District in North Carolina as a model to be emulated. Mooresville gave every 4th-12th grade student 24/7 access  to an Apple computer laptop along with low-priced Internet access.

Mooresville is the 100th poorest school district out of 115 districts in the state of North Carolina, yet its overall graduation rate is the state’s second-highest.

“They’ve been using technology for seven years and the kids haven’t taken home a textbook in six,” Greene said.

Each student in that district has a technology device instead, he said.

“Oh by the way: budget neutral. No extra levies, no nothing … instead of buying books they bought technology,” Greene said.

Greene opined that students could use smartphones to find the answers or information they needed to solve a problem, rather than having the students know  that information from memory.

That comment spurred fellow board member Mark Gaines to pipe up.

Gaines said it was important that students understand why an answer they found on a smartphone was the right answer.

“If you ask my boys a physics question they’ll give you the answer but they understand what that answer means. You can Google anything and get answers and get the right answer without having any comprehension of what that means and how that relates to the real world and what the implications of that answer actually mean,” Gaines said.

“Look at the engineer world that I’m in: You can use software packages to design a bridge for you but is it safe to have people who don’t understand how to design a bridge to just use a software package?”

Gaines said his concern is making sure students comprehended what they were learning.

“It’s not just getting answers off the internet and putting it on a paper and getting good scores on your test” that counted, Gaines said.