A $15,000 grant for more computer equipment at Rocky Mount Academy has helped the local independent school to take a “quantum leap in educational opportunities, collaboration and communication” through technology, RMA Headmaster Tom Stevens said.

The Benedict Foundation, one of a few foundations dedicated solely to independent schools, has given RMA the funds to purchase three mobile technology labs and outfit them with 60 netbooks, adding to the technology capability already available in the two technology labs and in every classroom.

In lieu of constructing new buildings for technology, RMA has created a wireless campus this fall.

“The wireless carts have allowed us to expand facility use by turning any classroom into a computer lab and has allowed our teachers to enhance any lesson, staying right in their rooms,” Stevens said.

The mobile labs are in “constant use,” he said. They have been used, for example, by the fifth grade for composing poetry and essays. The eighth-grade exploratory Spanish class has used the netbooks to research Spanish-speaking countries and to review vocabulary and grammar. And, the AP psychology students have used them to act as subjects in online psychology experiments.

“We are increasingly integrating instructional technologies into the classroom as a means of creating new kinds of learning environments that prepare the 21st century student for academic challenges that are intellectually stimulating, that encourage collaboration, that promote controlled experimentation and support academic standards within core and co-curriculum subjects,” Stevens said. “With this generous grant from the Benedict Foundation, we are able to address the integration of technology and curriculum best practices to improve student learning and achievement and to enhance the effectiveness of instruction,” he said.

Rocky Mount Academy is a regional school that has been successful for the past 42 years in preparing students to be accepted at and succeed in some of the nation’s best colleges and universities.

“As technology has played an ever-increasing role in society, we accept our duty to develop and perpetuate technological initiatives in our school so our graduates will be competitive and effective,” Stevens said.

The Benedict Foundation for Independent Schools, based in Ohio, is organized to exclusively benefit independent secondary schools in the United States. Emphasis is placed on well-established schools with steady or growing enrollment which lack substantial financial resources of their own to undertake major projects through their operating budgets.