School District Will Lease 2,000 Apple Laptops
On a 5-3 vote, district will begin leasing Macbook laptops for 2012-13 school year
Photos
With a vote of 5 to 3 (one board member was not present), the Southern Lehigh School District passed a motion Tuesday to accept a lease that will increase the district's current fleet of Macs to 2,000 computers, as well as replace older existing Macs.
(See school board vote and quotes from last night's meeting here)
The decision was delayed from the March 12 meeting, where a presentation on leasing Apple products led board members to question whether the proprietary hardware and software was the most cost-effective option for the school. "For students, we are teaching computer skills that they are perfectly capable of learning on a PC," said board member John Quigley at the March meeting.
Several teachers spoke Tuesday on behalf of integrated technology. "All the access to technology has been integrated into our lesson plans effectively," said math teacher Ryan Haupt. "With the access to technology all the time, my 40- minute lesson can be accomplished. I can have videos ready for my students to review areas they may be struggling later if necessary."
Quigley pointed out that though the teachers spoke in favor of technology in the classroom, none made a case as to why the district needs to invest in Apple products.
"[The teachers] talked about using Excel. The presentation given [by technology coordinator Ken Jordan] was a PowerPoint presentation," said Quigley. "None of those programs are Mac specific."
Ultimately, the vote came town to cost. "Over the next five years, going to a 1:1 ratio with the Apple lease, we will save between $800,00 to $1 million," said business director Jeremy Melber.
Just because the school approved a 1:1 ratio for students doesn't mean that students should invest in laptop-friendly backpacks just yet.
"We are not proposing that students take laptops home," said board president Dr. Thomas McLoughlin.
Whether at home or in school, several audience members voiced their opposition to constant technology access. "Teachers are our best tools in the classrooms, not the computers," said Kathie Parsons, who wrote an open letter to the school board on the subject. Some board members agreed. "I don’t want to walk into a classroom five years from now and see a bunch of students staring dead into their computer while the teacher sits at the front," said board member Bill Lycett.
Superintendent Leah Christman pointed out that if the technology is integrated, a quiet classroom can be deceiving. "If you're teaching in a very traditional college teaching environment, and the students are on [laptops and other devices], there are studies that show the tech can be distracting. We have worked very hard to make sure that the technology is integrated into the learning environment."
And, Christman said, technology is an integral part of students' lives.
"These students are digital learners, they are not growing up in the world we grew up in."
Susan LaBrie
11:05 am on Wednesday, April 11, 2012
How does the district expect to monitor the content that is viewed on these computers? There has already been multiple issues where the students in the IS has seen inappropriate content and those overseeing the situations have dealt with it in a very lackadaisical fashion. I'm sure there have been other incidents in all of the other schools.
Where are the monies coming from to pay for this initiative? The district has already cut programs due to lack of funds. Who is responsible if the computers are lost, stolen or broken? I feel the district is rushing into something that is not needed at the present time.
Michael Eddinger
10:03 am on Thursday, April 12, 2012
There was already money in the budget for computers. This will save money by using LESS money that was already planned for computers.
Mary Lindsay
11:05 am on Wednesday, April 11, 2012
This is a mistake. I see that the long-timers on the board have no idea what's going on in the real world. MAC is not even utilized in the business world. What were they thinking? And they have to raise taxes to make it happen? Plus, the kids get the laptops instead of actually being taught by a high-paid teacher? Come on!
Elizabeth Rich
10:15 am on Wednesday, April 11, 2012
From Kathleen Parsons- "So the plan now is for each student to pick up "their" Mac when they get to homeroom. Cart it around all day, even to the classes where they will not be using them (any technology class, art, gym, lunch and even core classes) and then somehow get them back to a cart before they go home. There was an opportunity to lease only 1,000 or 1,500 but your school board voted to lease 2,000. How many kids are in the High School - 1,000. Do they really need their own Mac to walk around the building with?? Flash drives cost $10 and all students are required to have them! Let's think of that when they decide to close Lower Milford because they are facing a budget deficit of a million dollars."
Michael Eddinger
10:01 am on Thursday, April 12, 2012
Why repost this? What's the point?
Ruth Beck
12:08 pm on Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Yet another showing of the "keeping up with the rich Jonses" school district that we live in...because I bet if you poll the students, most of them have their own computer (probably even a laptop) at home, including my own children, who saved up birthday and Christmas money to buy one. Thank you Mr. Lindsay, Mr. Lycett, and Mr. Quigley, for voting against "the Jonses".
Michael Eddinger
9:57 am on Thursday, April 12, 2012
No members of the board voted for this to "keep up with the Jones". That is, quite frankly, hilarious. And at least two of the members who voted against this want to build a turf field at the M.S. Is that keeping up with the Jones? You folks really need to stop seeing conspiracy in every move. There is such a thing as a difference in opinion.... try not to cast every decision as being the work of idiots, a conspiracy or people who are out of touch. Sometimes it is just informed people with a different opinion than yours.
Stew
9:58 pm on Wednesday, April 11, 2012
It is a shame that our elected officials representing the people continue to spend the the people's money. THANK YOU to Mr. Lindsay, Mr. Lycett and Mr. Quigley for standing the line. Shame on those who voted for it and shame on the administration for not realizing the cost factor and long term consequences of spending.
Stew
11:21 pm on Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Perhaps the money could be used to provide instructional assistants in the kindergarten classrooms at a cost of $60,000...think about the long term ramifications of this investment....for each child.
Michael Eddinger
9:59 am on Thursday, April 12, 2012
Do you support a turf field ??
Kathleen Parsons
9:09 am on Thursday, April 12, 2012
Or they could have chosen to purchase 1,000 and made them dual optimized so they could use Windows or the Mac OS. No survey was done to find out what the students or the parents thought or to find out what was already owned. 10 years ago when that survey was done 86% of SL families said they had computers with internet access. Here's my best guess for the next step, they're going to say it's too much trouble for the kids to put the laptops back on the carts at the end of the day AND that there is going to be a lot of breakage due to the fact that they can't really tie these in-school-only computers to the kids. I betcha they will be going home with the kids before 2013 school year is done AND parents will be paying the $65/laptop insurance that's already been figured out.
Elizabeth Rich
10:55 am on Thursday, April 12, 2012
Hi @Mike, Originally the issue was that no comments were showing up in the articles, so I was posting the comments I could see, but no one else could. That's how it was posted twice. Hope that helps!
Bob the Big Kid
12:29 pm on Friday, April 13, 2012
Where is all of this money supposed to come from? This is an unnecessary expense. I was looking through old tax bills the other day. Do you realize that the school taxes in Southern Lehigh have doubled in the last 12 years? Have any of you doubled your salaries in that time? We need to get back to the basics.
Mary B
12:35 am on Monday, May 7, 2012
I completely agree with those of you who oppose the aquisition of additional laptops. Simply not necessary in my view.