COLWOOD - The Sooke School District (SD 62) has just received a huge technology upgrade in their classrooms.

Close to 700 teachers throughout the district have gotten new laptops and docking stations. This means teachers will no longer have to bring their own personal laptops into the classroom in order to keep up with technology and new learning trends. 

“We heard loud and clear from teachers that they wanted more resources in the classroom and laptops was one of those things,” said Ravi Parmar, Chair of the Sooke School District.

“What’s also great about this we are leasing this equipment so after three years, there will be a refresh and next time around we will get the latest technology.”

In addition to the new laptops, SD 62 has upgraded 520 wireless access points and will be replacing 200 desktop computers.

With classroom work increasingly moving online, students now have greater opportunity to follow along with teachers in real-time and submit their work in a digital form. 

Danita Stewart, a Grade 8 teacher at Dunsmuir Middle School in Colwood, says that the use of this technology in the classroom comes very easily to the students. 

“The students are very good at learning new technologies and adapting to them very quickly," said Stewart.

"Those are also skills that employers will be looking for in the workplace," added Stewart. "Being adaptable and being able to critically think and apply new skills, they can do that with technology very quickly.”

Max Coy, a Grade 6 student at Dunmuir Middle School told CTV News that he likes the new technology in the classroom because he’s using a lot less paper. 

“It’s good for the environment because you’re not wasting paper for every assignment,” said Coy. “Now you just type it on a computer and submit it.”

For the Sooke School District, they say the timing for this investment couldn’t be any better. 

"We've made this a standard now in our classroom and it's timely because we're growing and we're going to be opening up new schools,” said Parmar.

“We don’t want to have 'have and have not' schools, we want all teachers to have the equipment they need to be able to perform the duties they need to educate our kids and provide a great education."

The total cost of the equipment upgrade was approximately $450,000.