Cape students to receive laptops Wednesday

The much-anticipated rollout of convertible laptop devices for 1,200 Central High School students in Cape Girardeau is scheduled to start at 7:40 a.m. Wednesday.

The ASUS Transformer Book computers, which can be used as a laptop and a tablet, were delivered to the high school Monday. The distribution was planned for today, but school was canceled because of the frigid temperatures.

"They are ready to go. They were delivered this morning," assistant superintendent for academic services Sherry Copeland said.

The devices, which are shrink-wrapped, will be distributed in the Commons Area of the high school. Cope­land wished to reassure parents the devices won't allow students to access anything at home that they can't access at school.

"They are signing user agreements ... with the assurance, No. 1, that they have to take care of the device and can't go to any bad sites. I know there are children who are very tech savvy who can go around our system, but they're not supposed to," Copeland said. "In the event someone breaks policy, breaks that contract, we would deal with that as a discipline issue."

Additionally, Copeland said, local pawn shops have been notified about the computers and the laptops have matching barcodes for the keyboard and screen, for example, and are engraved in a way that cannot be etched over. "We bought our own engravers, so every device from here on out will

be engraved by us. ..." Copeland said.

When the touch screen devices are distributed, students will go through various stations alphabetically, starting with freshmen and working up to seniors, Cope­land said. Students will watch a training video on how to use the device and familiarize themselves with Windows 8.

Volunteers will help man the stations. "We need this to go as smoothly as possible. It's just a very tight schedule," Copeland said. "There's been a lot of work a lot of preparation to get ready for this day. Our high school faculty has really stepped up to the plate. They've really had to work hard to get ready for this day. It's going to be a paradigm shift in the way teachers teach."

Students also will sign up for insurance on the device, which will cost $25 and covers up to $400 -- the cost of one device. If they reach the $400, the student pays $25 and starts over with a new device. "We do set up payment plans for everybody. Some people have chosen to pay the $25 outright and some are paying a monthly fee ... like $5 for four months. The minimum would be $5," Copeland said.

At its Sept. 25 meeting, the school board approved authorizing superintendent James Welker to negotiate a lease-purchase agreement through US Bank to provide financing for the computers and to execute the contract on behalf of the board. Assistant superintendent of support services Neil Glass said the lease period is for four years.

"Lease-purchase is a mechanism that allows us not to obligate future boards to a financial burden," Glass said. Obligating future boards goes against state statute, he said.

The purchase totals about $520,000 includes devices for teachers, loaners in case a device breaks, updated storage capacity and a $5-per-device charge to configure the computers to school district needs, officials said previously. Each Asus T100TA computer costs $345.

Copeland said the district last week was in the final stages of resetting passwords and checking batteries on the devices to make sure they were fully charged.

Along with the laptops, students will receive a bag, inside of which will be charging cords for the laptop and earbuds, if needed, Cope­land said.

When this year's seniors graduate, Copeland said, their computers will be given to eighth-graders, "so we always buy a freshman class new computers and hope they'll keep them for all four years. This year's freshmen will have their same computer all four years, so they need to take care of it, but the senior class will always drop theirs down."

On a related note, Copeland said the 1:1 cycle is continuing at Central Junior High School. Lenovo computers for teachers there have arrived and will be distributed in the next couple of weeks. Student devices have not yet been ordered, but she said distribution is planned for August.

Copeland said she's not sure how far down -- in terms of grade level -- the 1:1 program will reach. "We do know we want to go down to at least third or fourth grade," she said, adding more research is needed to see how computer skills work for kindergarten to second grade.

The Cape Girardeau district teaches computer skills starting in kindergarten, Copeland said.

Poplar Bluff's 1:1

Like Cape Girardeau schools, districts across the region are starting to provide laptop computers to students.

As part of a "digital transformation," the Poplar Bluff School District this fall deployed about 850 MacBook Air devices to seventh- and eighth-grade students at Poplar Bluff Junior High School. Sikeston High School seniors also received iPads in August as part of Project iLearn.

In addition to his school, Bob Case, principal at Poplar Bluff Junior High, said MacBook Air laptops have been placed at the Fifth and Sixth Grade Center, though not every student has one, and the high school is in the pilot phase of MacBook Air implementation.

Teachers also received 13-inch laptops and there are loaner machines, bringing the total in the district to about 1,300 devices. By next year, Case said, the computers will be deployed in grades seven through 12. To help care for the laptops, the district provided students with backpacks and a computer cover, Case

said.

"Damage has been minimal," Case said, noting the laptops are durable and have no movable parts.

"Most of them [the students] really appreciate this educational tool and they really take care of them. We've had problems, but very few; a lot less than I anticipated. That's a plus," Case added.

Case said "a lot of good things have happened" as a result of having the devices, such as more projects developed by students, more students turning their work in on time and progress in math and English in the classroom. However, the biggest test will come when students take the MAP, or Missouri Assessment Program, tests.

From concept to implementation, Case said the 1:1 process took about a year and a half. Poplar Bluff partnered with the Mooresville Graded School District in Mooresville, N.C., to see how it made the program work. Case said there have been several professional development days, including a summer institute put on by Mooresville representatives.

So far, Case said teachers have been open minded about the laptops.

"It's a learning curve; there's no doubt about that," Case said, but they've been doing well.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

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