Students at Brooklyn Middle School could be getting their own personal computer next year if the proposed school budget passes.

The district is planning to spend $40,000 so that each of its estimated 360 middle schoolers can use a Google Chromebook at school. Each one costs between $225 and $250. The school wants to acquire 160 more.

Computers do much more than just streamline the learning process by minimizing the need for paper, local educators say. Natalie Geeza, a seventh grade geography teacher, said using the Chromebooks ensures that her course material stays current in a world where maps are constantly changing.

"Everything is updated and we’re giving the students the best most recent information," Geeza said.

The Chromebooks also allow her students to engage with the information in new ways. For example, they can add or remove layers on maps to examine political and physical boundaries, climate data, and economic information.

"It also helps us to diversify how we deliver information," Geeza said. Students who learn better by hearing rather than reading can listen to audio versions of their textbooks, Geeza said.

The Chromebooks enrich learning in other ways, especially for local students who do not have the opportunity to travel. Students can go on virtual field trips, Skype with refugees and military service members, and take virtual tours of museums they would otherwise not be able to visit.

Brooklyn Middle School currently has one Chromebook for every two students. The computers are on carts and teachers have to sign out for them. Providing a computer for every student maximizes the ability of teachers to plan out their lessons and avoids last-minute changes and interruptions to lesson plans, according to Principal Heather Tamsin.

It also helps teachers keep up with changing curriculum standards and frameworks. "In small districts it can be really challenging to revise the curriculum as the standards change," Tamsin said.

Brooklyn appears to be keeping up with other districts when it comes to computers and middle school students. Killingly, like Brooklyn, has one computer for every two students and plans to go to a ratio of 1 to 1 in a couple of years. Canterbury is almost at a 1 to 1 ratio and Pomfret has one for every student, according to information compiled by Brooklyn Superintendent Patricia Buell.

In Brooklyn, the plan is for each student to use the same computer each day, but they will not be taking the computers home with them.

The middle school will still be using paper as well. Assistant Principal Josh Torchia said that the school is "in no way dumping" traditional textbooks and "going completely paperless."

Tamsin said the district will evaluate what paper-based textbooks it may or may not need next year. "I think that’s going to be another shift for us," Tamsin said.

The increasing use of computers also comes at a time when child development advocates are raising concerns that children are spending too much time on screens. But local educators say that having a Chromebook with them doesn’t mean middle school students will be staring at screens all day. The computers lie flat on the desk, so students remain engaged in the class. And teachers can connect them to a smartboard to for an interactive review of student work, according to Geeza.

Students will also be using the computers to make things like videos, Torchia noted. "They’re not just going to be a consumer," Torchia said. "It’s going to be a production tool."