Community Unit School District 308 is considering spending millions to bring wireless Internet to every classroom and to buy enough computers to put a device in the hands of every student from third grade up.
Right now the Oswego-based district has one device for about every two students.
The major investment in one-to-one computing is tied to the district’s goal to bring blended learning — which uses a mix of traditional and online teaching methods — to every classroom and to make sure the district has the tools needed to give online tests, such as the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, in classrooms instead of computer labs.
More than half of general education students have to leave their regular classroom during computer-based tests now. Moving students to labs to take tests is disruptive, the district said, and limits lab usage for other purposes.
Mobile technology investments can break down the divide between learning in school and at home, district officials said, and make learning more personalized for individual students. It also can free teachers from using a costly textbook and help level the playing field for students who don’t have devices at home.
The district’s director of technology, Allen Clasen, and consultants from the Milwaukee-based Capital Data presented three technology plan options to the school board last week that ranged in price from $36.3 million to $44.7 million over the next five years. Consultants recommended the least expensive option.
Each proposed plan included the $6.5 million purchase of Google Chromebooks for about 14,000 students, a price tag that includes replacing the machines after three years, and spending $22.1 million to make system upgrades to support the new devices. Staff also would receive new computers.
Clasen said the district recommended buying Chromebooks because of their relatively inexpensive price — they retail starting at $200 on Google’s website — and their ability to work with Google tools. Students would have unlimited storage and be able to create a portfolio of documents, videos and other projects that would last from elementary to high school, he said.
The total cost difference boils down to whether the district wants to provide a “virtual desktop” for students in fifth to 12th grades, which would allow students to access remotely what they’d normally find housed on a computer desktop, such as folders, toolbars and other icons.
Getting a virtual desktop for each of those students would cost $16.1 million. Consultants recommended using a combination of apps and virtual desktops, at the cost of $7.7 million. A slightly more expensive option that takes that same hybrid approach, but includes some expansion of the district’s existing technology setup, would cost $8 million.
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Students in kindergarten to second grade wouldn’t get individual devices. Instead they’d continue to share iPads and other devices the district has already purchased for them.
If approved, the technology plan would begin this fall when officials would work on wireless capabilities and distribute some 600 Chromebooks. During the first year, a limited number of students in specialized programs would use the new tools, such as students working to master English, learning in gifted programs or taking online courses.
Over the next three years the district would give devices to students when they began third, sixth and ninth grades. By 2019, only new third-graders would need devices.
School board members said they’d need time to discuss the options and plan to hold a work session in the near future dedicated to reviewing the costs.
Board members questioned how much it would cost to maintain and fix the new devices and whether the district instead should pursue a bring-your-own-device model, which allows students to work on their devices from home.
Clasen said the district plans to use existing technology staff to do repairs, as well as high school and junior high school students who’ve been trained to make simple fixes.
District officials said while the bring-your-own-device model is significantly less costly — the district only would have to provide devices for low-income students — the downside is a lack of control over what systems are available on the students’ devices.
That can present a problem during computer-based standardized tests that require a specific setup. Classes could be interrupted if students have tech issues while working on their own devices and the teacher can’t easily fix the issue.
District officials said they didn’t plan to offer data plans to students so they could connect to the Internet at their homes on their Chromebooks if they didn’t have a wireless connection.
Officials said if students planned ahead they could access some of their documents and materials offline.
Board member Mike McDowell said he saw that as a downfall to the plan.
Clasen said a recent district survey showed about one in 10 students didn’t have Internet access at home.