My school, which was built on the cheap in the early sixties, is about to get a major overhaul this summer. Part of that is going to include a new state-of-the-art wireless internet system. That’s great news. However (don’t you hate howevers?), I’ve been informed that our 9 year old iBooks probably won’t be able to access the system because they don’t have the correct security software (I believe it’s a WEP thing). I do have 11 newer Macbooks, but that sinks any hope of 1:1 for next year. In reality things weren’t looking good anyhow. I’m really down to about 22 or so working laptops (2 – 4 more sort of work) and the folksy-ness of using 9 year old computers, which worked well for a long time, is starting to wear thin. They are finally showing their age in major ways.
This of course coincides with the economic crash and my state being last in funding education … our governor announced yesterday that he wants to cut education even more now. Therefore funding isn’t looking good. So my newest challenge is to come up with 19 new Macbooks (BTW netbooks are out, our IT dept. doesn’t allow them, yet) or HP’s (certain models only). I’ll have to do a bunch of my own “messy” learning to come up with a way to make this work.
Learning is messy!
I think most of us would sound so much more frustrated in this situation than you do. I read this post thinking there was no doubt you would come up with something to have enough laptops for your fourth graders by the fall, just because you sound so upbeat about it. I am so impressed and I am reminded that problems don’t have to be dead ends.
If you ever have any doubt about the state of your education funding, just look to AZ, where I’m at. Always the bottom of the list in funding, quality, etc. It could be worse 🙂