The Edmonds School District has a preliminary list of technology projects that voters could approve and pay for — if a proposed technology and capital levy goes before them in spring 2008.
A one-to-one student laptop program, as some of Edmonds’ neighboring school districts have invested in, is not on that list.
The Shoreline School District, for example, gave a laptop to every middle and high school student in the district last fall, and this fall will give one to every fifth- and sixth-grader. Other districts around the country have adopted similar programs, which are still considered on the cutting edge of education technology.
There was a lot of discussion about one-to-one laptops in the groups the district talked to for input on the levy, said Cynthia Nelson, technology director for the Edmonds School District.
First, the programs are expensive to buy, support and replace, said Kim Mathey, manager of instructional technology. The district is trying to be fiscally responsible, Nelson said.
Training is another consideration.
“We’re trying to adopt a realistic pace,” Nelson said. “We don’t want to put things out there without people being able to use them in an effective way.”
The district has to get more content online first that teachers can use, Mathey said.
“We don’t want to put the cart before the horse,” she said.
The district is slowly training teachers to use technology, she said.
“As they learn, and as they see a need, they want the tools,” she said. “They need time to learn how to make that work.”
Mathey and Nelson talk regularly with other districts to see what’s happening and use that input to design plans for Edmonds, Mathey said.
“We’re trying hard to learn from other people’s mistakes and not repeat them,” she said. “We’re always looking around (to see): Is it working?”
In the future, it’s likely that laptops will get less and less expensive, but that hasn’t happened yet, Nelson said.
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