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Schools

Farmington Public Schools to Make Laptop Purchase

The $628,000 investment will purchase 800 computers for elementary classrooms.

will spend $628,000 on the purchase of 800 laptop computers for elementary schools. The purchase will bring the ratio of computers in those schools to one computer to every two students.

School board members believe that’s a move in the right direction in terms of the district’s technology goal – to have one computer for every student – it would be even better if there was enough technical support to back up the growing number of computers in the classrooms.

School board members first learned about the level of frustration felt by some of the district’s teachers when some members visited elementary schools last April and May.

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Board president Sheilah Clay said at the Board of Education meeting July 19 that during the visit, some teachers said that it’s difficult to get a support technician on the phone when they do have problems with the computers.

So the teachers are trying to manage a classroom at the same time that they’re on hold trying to reach a technician by phone.

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“Some said they put student on the phone with the help desk so they could manage their classroom,” Clay said.

Board member Howard Wallach said that some teachers expressed frustration over difficulty in scheduling computer use, and the hit-or-miss success with getting the computers delivered to the classrooms when they are needed.

Board member Deborah Brauer said that teachers told her that some of the software on the computers they did have available was not that helpful.

It’s a licensing issue, said director of information technology Michael Johnston said. Not every computer has all the software it needs because the district would not install software on computers for which it did not buy the license. The district will, however, buy the software licenses required for this laptop purchase.

The new laptops are being purchased through a state purchasing program that gives buyers the best price for high-volume sales. Each of the Hewlett Packard computers will cost $713, about one third lower than purchasing directly from Hewlett Packard, which would cost $948 per computer.

That’s a good price, board members agreed, but if the process to use the computers is difficult, Brauer asked if it’s worth it.

“I love the idea of more technology but if they are not being supported,” she said. “Is it worth it? It seems there would be some teachers who would avoid it altogether to avoid the hassle of it.”

Further, she asked if it would be a wiser purchase to buy tablets like the iPad, which is “more fun” and may be more useful with high-tech white boards.

Not necessarily, said Johnston, because tablets won’t support some of the software being used in the classroom now.

Board member Timothy Devine said that he’s concerned that the purchase, which is a big commitment in that the laptops should last four or five years, because there are no teachers on the district’s Technology Advisory Group. He asked whether the district would have time to get teacher input before the purchase must be made; the pricing from the state program is only guaranteed for 30 days. 

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