Lavallette Classroom Goes High Tech With Grant

Here's a question for you: what will the classroom of the future look like? Just ask Lee Oliver, a math teacher at Lavallette Elementary School. He was awarded a very special grant from the Ocean First Foundation to put his digital skills to the test. The outcome? Something the late Steve Jobs would have loved - and something that would make Bill Gates drool over.

Out with the chalk, in with the iPads. The goal of the Ocean First Model Classroom Grant was to help promote education in the new digital era. Oliver was able to use the money to buy a smartboard, smart pen, high definition camcorders, wi-fi access and iPad minis for each student to use while in the class.

Oliver, who teaches 5th, 6th and 7th graders and also math lab to 3rd and 4th, applied for the grant and was one of 15 recipients.

He says he's not just a teacher anymore. "I am more like a facilitator of knowledge. I pull back away from the textbook and I give them a platform where they can work at their own pace. It's better for them in so many ways, and they retain the information."

Oliver tells us the students love it so much, they don't want to leave.

In addition, if a student is absent, he or she can make up the lessons by logging online and getting to access not only class notes but the actual audio presentation of the class that day.