Soon to be sixth-grader David Arlington was a little lost Tuesday afternoon. He was at John E. Pound School, the new headquarters for the Lockport City Schools technology department.

Arlington was using an Apple iPad, the new tablet-like, touch-screen personal computer released in April. He was on Google Earth, a website that offers maps with satellite images of a given location.

“I was on Google looking for my house,” he said.

Soon Arlington won’t be the only Lockport student using an iPad. Coming this school year, Lockport will have roughly 20 to 25 iPads available in the library of each school building. Teachers and staff from the high school, both middle schools and all five elementary schools will be trained on the iPads starting today and Thursday.

Rosanna Sandell, director of research and development, said the money to pay for the iPads and the training comes from a grant that gives money to encourage the use of technology in the classroom. Through the Enhancing Education Through Technology grant, the district was awarded $200,000 in May.

“It was a highly competitive grant,” Sandell said. “There were only 70 given out statewide. Most of the money went to the New York City area.”

The grant-writing process started out like this. In February the state education department posted a notice on its website about the grant. Sandell wrote the district’s response, which includes reporting what the district needed and explaining how it would be implemented and enhance a school’s curriculum.

The grant focuses on helping English language learners as well as students with disabilities, which is important because the district is seeing an increase in both, Sandell said. But all Lockport students will be able to use the iPads.

“The whole population will,” Sandell said.

A number of applications, or computer programs that carry out a specific function, are available for students on iPads. Aside from the maps, kids can find “apps” for a lot of things, such as one that can create music by providing the keys or strings of an instrument on the touch screen of the iPad itself. Students can also read newspapers or books easily on the iPad and websites visited can be monitored.

Seeing Lockport keep up with technology was a good thing, a few students said Tuesday. Arlington said items such as iPads and SMART boards would add a little something to his classes.

“It makes it a lot more fun,” Arlington said.

Ninth-grader Ben Corrallo and his brother, Kellen, a seventh-grader at Emmet Belknap, were trying out the iPads on Tuesday. Having access to the iPads is a great thing for the district, they said.

“It’s unique — a lot better than the old computers we had,” Kellen said.

“A nice upgrade,” Ben said.

Robert LiPuma, the district’s director of technology, said keeping up with technology was critical for education. Recently Lockport has been aiming to improve technology around the district, including adding interactive whiteboards to some classrooms.

Technology offers easier access to information for students and makes learning more fun and interesting, LiPuma said.

“They’re engaged and interested, they're excited about it,” LiPuma said.

Up until this year, technology money was given to school districts through the No Child Left Behind program. Now districts must compete for that money, Sandell said, something that will happen with the recently awarded Race To The Top money. New York won $696 million from the federal government and will give out $348 million to school districts. Half of that amount, $129 million, will be dispersed in a similar competitive manner, Sandell said.

Michelle Bradley, Lockport’s assistant superintendent for learning and assessment, said with the current economic climate, Lockport would be focusing more on applying for grants. Lockport misses out on some available money because it isn’t seen as a high needs district by the state.

“We have to look for alternative funding,” Bradley said. “And we’ll continue to look for grants that we feel align with our district goals.”

And among those goals is using to technology to improve the education Lockport students receive, Bradley said. When they graduate, in order to be successful, students have to be up to date on things like whiteboards and iPads.

“This is their technology,” LiPuma said.

Sandell said a grant award is required to be audited by an outside party to make sure the funds are being used properly. Throughout the year, the University at Buffalo will evaluate how the grant’s money is being used and assess the effectiveness of the technology. But they won’t be the only ones who want to know how an iPad affects learning in the classroom, Sandell said. It could lead to the development of more student-friendly apps.

“Apple has never done this, so they want to know how it turns out,” Sandell said.

Contact reporter Joe Olenick at 439-9222, ext. 6241.