Submitted Photo Students at Minot High School-Central Campus use technology to complete school assignments.

Minot Public Schools students are preparing for a world where they use technology as tools to help them learn and create.

Technology director Alicia Eslinger said the school district employs six technology coaches to assist teachers in making use of technology in the classroom, three at the elementary level and three at the high school level.

The tech coaches do such things as introduce tools such as Google Apps, which teachers and students use to create video newsletters or video announcements. Students at the elementary will likely also find themselves using other programs like iMovie, a movie-making app, and Do Ink, a way to create green screen images and videos on an iPad or iPhone.

The videos are broadcast to the school using a teacher’s Google account. Eslinger said the videos are not made public.

“They’re learning all sorts of tools, neat tricks to do with iPads,” said Eslinger.

Kids are also likely to use the new tools to deliver a report on a book.

Eslinger said the days of the old book reports are gone; these days kids are apt to make a video acting out the plot of a book or promoting the author.

The district has Chromebooks dispersed in classrooms across the district and teachers have been trained in ways to use technology to enhance their teaching.

At the high school level, kids can take classes in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics areas that require them to use a 3D printer or software that lets them practice flying a plane.

Two additional classes will be offered next year at Minot High School-Central Campus.

Sports and activities multi media will cover topics including the use of digital images, videos, creating meaningful documentation, writing for the web and the way people interact with online resources.

Current technologies will teach students how to make the best use of different types of social media.

Eslinger said teachers at the high school level have also been encouraged to permit students to use their own devices for class lessons.

She said students are hopefully using their smartphones in class to do math or science problems like measuring distances or determining how long it will take to reach a destination from a particular point.

Since technology changes quickly, there will always be something new for the district to do with it.