A four-year project to upgrade student and teacher laptops and ensure School District 43 students can work seamlessly in a high-tech learning environment is bearing fruit, according to the man leading the charge.
Stephen Whiffin brought his Tech Twenty presentation to a recent school board meeting and outlined a plan whereby thousands of computers and laptops are being upgraded throughout district schools; internet speeds are being improved to enhance technology in the classroom; parents are getting in on the action with FreshGrade, an online reporting tool, as well as new communication apps that will alert them in an emergency.
Whiffin, the district’s director of instruction for technology, told The Tri-City News SD43 high school students and their families will be the first to experience a new app to enhance communication between home and school.
Whiffin said School Messenger will be used to send messages to the landlines and cell phones of parents and guardians of high school students, and will be in place by next spring, although it’s being piloted now, and elementary and middle schools will get the technology in the following school year.
“It will be the first time we will have mass voice and text communication and that will help us with emergency communication,” Whiffin said.
The app will allow schools to notify parents and guardians about emergency issues, such as a school closures, or in the event of a student absence or a field trip notice but will also be integrated with MyEDBC so, eventually, parents will be able to get online access to report cards and other student information.
There may be a wait for parents who want to see this technology roll out soon.
Whiffin said high school students will get access to the student records, including the digital report card function likely for the final reporting period of the current school year in June, but it won’t be available to elementary and middle school families until next year because of the time required to input all the data.
“We want it to be as seamless as much as as possible. What we’re trying to avoid is parents having to go and put information in multiple places,” Whiffin said.
Meanwhile, laptops older than five years are being replaced and specialty computers purchased with the help of 50% subsidies, if they’ve been identified as necessary in school technology plans.
“We can’t expect teachers to use outdated technology,” Whiffin said. “Our employees need to have it.”
Over the summer, 600 Windows laptops were purchased for teachers, 500 for students, 350 desktops and 600 iPads, while 1,100 outdated PCs and 500 iPads were removed. The new replacement equipment is “ruggedized” for students and optimized for seamless use in any learning environment.
Ensuring that 25% of teacher laptops are replaced annually and that money is available for school laptops and other upgrades costs the district approximately $1 million a year, with some of the funds coming from SD43’s budget surplus, according to Whiffin, while laptops that are removed but still in good shape are re-used by students at schools where a device is a requirement.
