We believe that the BHS 1 to 1 Laptop Technology Initiative supports our
District’s mission to enable all students to reach their potential with a
sustainable model that prepares them for 21st century challenges. We
encourage everyone to view our 1-1 presentation at
www.beverlyschools.org
(Click on Beverly Technology Initiative under “Latest News”). This website
will give you the background behind our thinking and more details about the
program, including samples of student work with laptops in the classroom.
All K-12 parents were given an opportunity to view this presentation either
online or in person last March and to give us feedback via a short survey.
The results of this survey are also posted on the website. While we hope
many readers will take the time to view the presentation, we want to let you
know what we based our decisions on.
1. Our network in the new BHS is designed to support *any* platform but
our decisions when purchasing servers and other infrastructure items took in
consideration that we would be using the Apple platform for our student and
teacher laptops.
2. If the program were to start today, we would be offering parents the
ability to lease a new laptop for $25 per month. This includes hardware,
software, 3 year warranty, full insurance, a laptop case, and technical
support. This pricing could change by September 2011 when we begin the
program. In fact, prices have dropped quite a bit since we began speaking to
vendors a couple years ago.
3. Parents are not *required* to participate in this program. We will
have an in school loaner program for those who do not participate and
financial assistance for those in need.
4. As part of our research over the past 5 years we spoke to many “one to
one” laptop schools across the country. We were advised over and over
to select *one* platform to ensure program success. A multi-platform
environment would require more tech support and potentially make it
difficult and disruptive for teachers in the classroom. i.e. they would need
to be very familiar with both platforms in order to deal with issues that
may arise.
5. After evaluating various platforms, we chose Apple for three *main *
reasons:
*Tech support and reliability:* Macs require less tech support and are more
reliable. We have experienced this first hand already with the Macs we have
purchased which have proven to be very reliable while many PCs in the
district are often not available due to virus or malware issues.
*Cost: *We obtained quotes from two prominent PC laptop vendors using
comparable specifications and were given prices in line with the Mac quote.
*Track record with supporting 1-1 laptop schools:* Apple has helped over
1,000 schools districts implement 1-1 programs all over the country. They
are invested in our success and have already been as huge help to us in the
planning stages.
1. We understand that PCs are a popular platform in the business world
but feel strongly that our students will be able to make that shift when and
if the time comes. In fact, we feel students will be better prepared for the
future by learning how to adapt to different computing platforms.
We have been working on this plan for over five years, doing professional
development to make sure our teachers are prepared, working with architects
and consultants to ensure that the new building will be able to efficiently
handle 1,300 laptops and evaluating the financing requirements to be sure
that we will be able to sustain this plan well into the future. We look
forward to input from the community and ask for your support.
Yours truly,
Jim Hayes
Superintendent of Schools
