OXFORD – The Oxford Hills School District Board of Directors on Monday night received a lesson in iPad technology from elementary school children.

A half dozen Otisfield Community School kindergarten students who have been learning their letters on iPads showed directors the results of their instruction.

Principal Linda Park told the board that at the beginning of the year, some of her youngest kindergarten students were unable to learn their letters, despite using every “trick” she knew.

“All the kids now know their letters. It was that extra resource” of the iPads, she said.

The 10 iPads allowed the students and others to learn their letters, build words, read a story, be read to, learn the sequencing of letters and learn math facts and other skills, Park said.

“It doesn’t take the place of a teacher, but it’s a real resource,” she said.

Park said she hopes to get as many as 40 iPads in the hands of students by the end of the school year by using grant money and fundraising. Already,  parents and others have donated $1,000 toward the purchases, she said.

Although Auburn public schools allow kindergarten students to take iPads  home, Park said she does not.

“I watch them like a hawk,” she said of the computers. “They don’t go home.”

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