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Posted on November 16, 2011
Three More Massachusetts Districts Embrace One-to-One
The start of the 2011-2012 school year saw Mashpee, Beverly and Natick students receiving laptops for one-to-one use.
Massachusetts doesn't have a statewide 1:1 initiative like Maine, North Carolina or Idaho but that hasn't stopped schools across the state from jumping on the one-to-one bandwagon in record numbers lately. Mashpee, Beverly and Natick are just three of the MA districts that launched laptop initiatives at the start of the 2011-2012 school year.
In Mashpee, the one-to-one program grows out of work the district has been doing around professional development and improving 8th grade math instruction. The decision was made to devote the money that would otherwise have gone to buying textbooks in math and two other subject areas to the purchase of inexpensive HP mini notebooks and e-textbooks for every eight grader in the district. According to Mashpee Middle School principal Sheila Arnold there have been a few snags, mostly in the form of students forgetting to charge their laptops and intermittent wireless Internet outages, but feedback from parents has been positive.
Beverly's one-to-one initiative involves MacBook computers and all four years of high school. Incoming freshmen can purchase a laptop, participate in a rent-to-buy program (which involves a rental fee of approximately $28/month and the ability to purchase the device for $1 when they graduate), or sign out a loaner during the school day (with no take-home privileges). Financial assistance is being offered to eligible families.
Natick is also investing in MacBooks for its high school students but the year one implementation has involved this year's eighth graders—the students slated to be the first freshman class at the new Natick High School when it opens in 2012. According to the district web site, "With the opening of the new Natick High School Building, all students at the high school will also receive a laptop and the digital conversion for grades 8-12 will be well underway. The new Natick High School will become the most technologically advanced high school on the East Coast and all students, grades 8 through 12, will access their education with state-of-the-art Mac-based computing technologies."
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