Port Jefferson School District announced its one-on-one laptop initiative to parents back in April of 2009.
Each sixth-grader was issued a Lenovo Thinkpad laptop at the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year. They will carry the laptops to and from school, and will use them for homework, as well as schoolwork in Word Documents, Power Points, and the Internet.
Costs, which included:
laptops for students, and a laptop for each teacher in the middle and high schools
replacement costs
expected software upgrades
amounted to about $90,000.
The budget for the district was $37.1 million.
School officials believe the program is beneficial to students -- they say it provides better interaction, and is better equipping them with technology in an ever-evolving world.
Opponents, including parents, says that the laptops are a distraction, are unnecessary, and the sixth-graders are too young to have them.
The school plans to add laptops to next year's 6th-grade class, as well as continuing to provide them to the current students (next year's 7th-grade class).
The school plans to add a third grade level the year after (grades 6-8 in the middle school), and then expand to the entire high school in 2012; grades 6-12.
What do you think? Are the laptops a good idea? Are they worth the cost? Are kids learning more?
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