Wisconsin District Goes 1-to-1 with iPads
Another
school district has made the decision to
incorporate a 1-to-1 program into its schools. The Marshfield
District
School Board has voted to spend $4.3 million over the next
10 years to give
every student in its eight
schools an iPad.
The
district will distribute the devices to its
4,100 students in two phases: Students in grades K-8 will get them next fall and high school students in 2018. Acquisition
of the
devices, along with training for staff members, is expected to cost
about
$370,000 per year with the expectation that devices will have to be
replaced
every three years.
District
Teaching and Learning Director Kimberly
Ziembo said the devices' use will also be phased in gradually and as an
adjunct
to instruction already in place. She said she anticipates
kindergartners next
year will probably use the iPads from 30 minutes to an hour each day.
"It's
truly about the instruction in the
classroom, not the device," Ziembo said in a report for the Marshfield News Herald.
Eventually,
said District Technology Director
Mike Drevlow, they will become much more embedded in the curriculum
with some
paper textbooks being replaced with digital versions and for assessment
purposes.
Columbus
Catholic High School, also in
Marshfield, began a 1-to-1 program several years ago in which the
school
provides iPads to students who don't have their own devices, charging
them a
$50 insurance fee.
"The
advantages really seem to have outweighed
any perceived disadvantages," said Columbus School President David Eaton.
"It really
puts a powerful tool in the student's hands."
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.