It’s Apple Picking Season

Its Apple Picking Season

By Natalie Reich

Sentry Staff Reporter

In today’s constantly advancing technological world, it is becoming more common for schools to use electronic devices for educational purposes. During the summer before the 2014-2015 school year, word got out regarding a special new technological privilege for the incoming freshman class; each freshman at every Arlington County high school would be receiving their very own Apple MacBook.

This huge announcement came with questions and concerns from both students and parents. The topic of these shiny new learning devices has been the buzz in Arlington since the news was released, and rightfully so. Distributing laptops like these to high school students is not a task that is easily executed.

Though some did not believe county schools would be making such a big investment, each student in the class of 2018 has received a Macbook, starting October 8 and hopefully ending around mid October. There will be the opportunity for parents to opt their child out of the program, but it is not recommended since the staff have exciting plans for online classrooms through the use of the laptops.

There are two models for distributing devices to students. They are called the One-to-One model and the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) model. The county has chosen to pursue a One-to-One model, although they are not calling it that, but rather referring to it as the Personalized Digital Learning Initiative. Coordinator of Instructional Technology, Keith Reeves, has the best insight on all matters relating to this initiative.

“One-to-One generally refers to the school, the institution, the organization providing devices to all of their students. Bring your own device is where the institution or the school creates conditions by which you can bring your devices in and we guarantee that it will work. In order for BYOD to be successful, basically all your platforms have to be universal, they have to be cross-platform. It’s harder to do, [because] from a school perspective you’re going to have more diverse devices. From a 1-to-1 perspective, you can pick the things that work because you know what the devices will be,” said Reeves.

Knowing that a single Apple laptop is more on the pricey side, it is hard to imagine how the schools will be able to afford close to 500 MacBooks a year. Around $600,000-700,000 was needed to get the program off the ground, and this came from funding already within the school district. Luckily, Reeves explained that there will be no major immediate trade-offs from the program. Everything will keep running as it was before, just with a more technologically based learning system for a quarter of the students. Hopefully, in the long run, this initiative will immensely cut down the use of paper, and eventually textbooks, and relieve some stress from laptop carts around the school.

A popular question being asked, often by current sophomores and upperclassmen, is something like, “Why are only the freshmen getting laptops?” This inequality is what is causing the most turmoil among students. Reeves stated that, around 92% of students in Arlington public schools already have their own laptops at home. This brings into question the benefit of providing new laptops for the whole grade, rather than just to students without a personal computer.

“There isn’t one, it’s just the way they decided to do it,” said Reeves. I think they were trying to do it equitably, and I believe that the desire was to try to start the process by which the devices will stay with the kids. So at the high school level, as you can imagine, if you’re going to do it by class, then that class goes forward and they have their devices, then the next class gets theirs, and over the course of a four year span everybody has one.”

 

Another burning question concerns how much liberty the students will have with the laptops. Each MacBook will have the necessary apps already downloaded, and restrict students from downloading any others. They will have the same restrictions and settings as all the computers in the school.

The devices are not insured with the school. Reeves suggested that families put the laptops under their own insurance policy just in case something happens. It seems that the risk of damage would be very high, but the administration has said that for the first year, they will deal with any problems that arise. When asked about damage and repair policies, Reeves said that he and the other individual instructional technologists have been told to say,

“We will take care of it.”

At the end of the day, this program’s primary goal is to improve education through the use of technology. The exact details have yet to be completely worked out, but as Principal Dr. Raymond Pasi explained, it is all a learning process.

“Anything we can do to use the technology in the classroom, when it helps with instruction, is terrific. Not just to use it just to use it. I think we all have to learn, as we go along, how to do that better,” said Pasi.

With the rapidly evolving technological world spinning faster than ever, it is no wonder the county is making this leap forward. Although the Personalized Digital Learning Initiative is being launched this year, Arlington Public Schools fully plans on tweaking the program to make it even better. The MacBooks are part of the bright, technological future Arlington has in store for its schools.

 

Featured Image by Libby Boda/SENTRY

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