I am very excited to announce that our school board has formally approved our plan to expand our 1:1 iPad (Project Bears21) initiative to include grades 7-12 for the Fall of 2013. While 1:1’s are popping up all over the place – I feel there are 2 unique components to our plan that may differ from others and would love your feedback.
Financing 1:1.
We have decided to blend our 1:1 with several options for parents. Below are the options that parents will have. While we will have some record keeping to do (thinking of tracking through either our helpdesk system (asset management) or our SIS – Infinite Campus).
Cost of the iPad
- iPad 2 – $380
- Case – $40 – Case is the ruggedized Griffin Survivor Case.
- Apps – $50 – The district will purchase the apps, but will be “owned” by the family.
- Total cost = $470
- Option 1 – Leasing Directly with Apple. (Grade 7-12) – In this option, the district would sign up for the lease and make payments on an annual basis. The district would require a $40 yearly insurance fee from parents ($35 for those eligible for reduced lunch, $30 for those eligible for free lunch) per student/device with a family cap of $120 per year. Parents would be responsible to pay the district for this option. At the end of the lease the district would essentially own the device but would turn the devices back to the company for a $100 trade up.
- Option 2 – Invest for Learning. (Grade 7-11) – In this option the district would partner 50/50 with the parents. Parents would be required to pay the leasing company their share of the lease (could be yearly, quarterly, monthly). Total cost to parents would be approximately $121/year/device. At the end of the lease, the parent could buy out the lease (for each device) for $20. The iPad would then be owned by the parent.
- Option 3 – Bring Your Own iPad2 (BYOi) (iPad2 or better). (Grades 9-12) – In this option, the parent already owns the device. The district would provide approximately $50 in apps per student. The parent must agree to enroll the device into the district’s mobile device manager (This is how we will provide the student with paid apps). The parent assumes all insurance/maintenance of the device.
Professional Development to support 1:1.
It was a plan by 1:1 plan by Northfield Public Schools (pdf) that really captured our eye. They included 4 year staff development plan based on the SAMR model of technology integration by Dr. Ruben R. Puentedura. We have adapted that idea and created our own model. While I feel we have quite a few teacher that will blow past the SAM levels of the SAMR in year 1- we need to recognize that not all our teachers are at the same skillset. This plan looks at ensuring classroom transformation in ALL classrooms within 3 years. Sometimes, you have to go slow to go fast and we do not want to leave any classroom behind!
Below is a video that highlights our plan for PD in preparation for implementation this fall. We also will be developing /providing plans for job embedded PD for the school year as well. Again, would love to hear your feedback!
Currently we have approximately 155 iPads for grade 7 students. Since we want all devices to be on the same schedule, we are going to take those ipads, as well as other “loose” ipads in our high school and expand more mobile carts for teachers in grade K-6. This is an interim plan to build the skillset and capacity within our teachers as we look to expand the 1:1 concept in the lower grade levels as well.
More information coming soon!