SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — When Mona Brown was told how much her grandson Alwayne had improved after he gained access to a laptop, she immediately thought of what she could do to provide the same opportunity to his classmates at the Llandilo School of Special Education.

She rallied other members of the Godfrey Stewart High School (GSHS) Class of 1979, and they donated a smart TV to the school. The content from the laptop has now been transferred to the TV and the school is moving along with efforts to integrate digital learning into its curriculum.

It caters to the social and intellectual requirements of special needs students aged six to 22.

According to Brown, Alwayne’s teacher — who told her that her grandson was an excellent student of technology — mentioned how much help a TV would be to the school.

“I went home and put it to the group, and one of my classmates, Lebert Walters said, ‘I’m gonna donate US$100’. Another one said, ‘I’m ready to make my donation and if anyone doesn’t want to give, I’ll personally take it from my pocket and buy it’,” chuckled Brown.

In accepting the gift earlier this month, the school’s principal, Roy Reid, told the Jamaica Observer that the device will be used to continue student’s multi-modal learning.

“We are elated! We are happy because what people don’t know is that we are fully in the information age. And we actually want learning to be through digital media,” said a grateful Reid.

“The television set which was donated is very essential in helping us to get back on track. We can use the bigger classroom… so they can get wider experiences,” the educator added.

Reid is hoping that this gesture will encourage other donors to come on-board.

“We want to say thank you to the donors. We appreciate it so much. We hope that this will be a signal to the broader corporate community that we have such need, and they can come in and fill it,” he appealed.

Vice-Principal Nichole Foster also expressed gratitude.

“This gift is not only something that is relevant but it is also appreciated and needed. It’s a very good gesture. As a grandmother of a child with disability, she sensed the need and realised that there was a gap and she stepped in. This is not the first time she has rallied around and networked with her friends and pulled together,” Foster said.

The TV, she said, would be helpful in keeping students engaged.

“We’re being direct and strategic. Some of them, their attention span to hold them to get something of consequence is 10 minutes; so with that in mind, we can transfer [the content from the laptop] to the television. It can be used in moments of breaks and also act as a reinforcement,” she reasoned.

Brown thanked Dean Robinson, Collin Crooks, Kingsley Holiness, Elvis Graham, Lebert Walters and Collin Haughton — members of the GSHS class of 1979 who live in Canada and the United States —for funding this particular project.

Popular Jamaican actor Michael “String Bean” Nicholson is also a member of the GSHS class of 1979 and has been a donor on numerous initiatives.