Tech budget would shift laptop responsibility from district to families ...

The proposed Franklin Regional technology budget would continue the trend of shifting expenses from taxpayers to parents by upgrading two wireless networks so students could use personal laptop computers instead of ones supplied by the district.

A year after the school board instituted a pay-to-play policy for sports and other extracurricular activities, officials are considering scaling back the number of computers the district makes available to students.?

The district's long-term technology plan had called for the replacement of 385 school-owned laptops next school year. However, a shift in philosophy outlined in the proposed 2012-13 tech budget would nix that purchase in favor of spending $312,000 to building a robust wireless network.?

Once the network is ready, students would be encouraged to bring their own laptops to school, which would cut back the need for the district to supply and maintain computers, said Frank Muto, supervisor of technology services.

The plan would help the district curtail spending on new computers and hardware over the next several years, according to superintendent Emery D'Arcangelo.

"Technology moves very quickly," D'Arcangelo said. "In this proposal, we're going to move away from replacing hardware, to going to a robust, wireless environment where students can bring their own technology."

The current, 8-year-old wifi networks at the high school and middle school are being "pushed to their limits," Muto said.?

"Right now, the wireless networks are the slowest we have," he said. "If we're going to support a bring-your-own-devices system, we're going to need to beef up our (wireless) hardware and bandwidth to support it."

Officials hope to install the wireless network in the high school and middle school over the summer so they could be running by the start of next school year.

"Muto said 265 of the laptops that had been slated for replacement were paid for by a state grant."

In 2007, the district bought computers ? which have an expected five-year lifespan ? through with a $123,000 Classroom of the Future grant, D'Arcangelo said.?

He also said district officials would have to develop a policy outlining acceptable network uses before encouraging students to bring their own devices into the school building on a regular basis.

The change shouldn't be too difficult, since most students already bring iPads, iPhones and laptop computers into school on a daily basis, D'Arcangelo said. Though students already bring such devices into the schools, they don't use the district network.

Although officials said they would like for eventually all students to bring their own computers, they plan to keep several on hand for students from families who cannot afford to do so, Muto said.

Noting that the district has surveyed local families about home internet access, Muto said the district will survey families as it prepares to shift to what is being referred to as a BYOD ? "bring you own device" ? system. The earlier survey indicated that 90 percent of local families had internet access and multiple computers at home, Muto said.

Currently, the BYOD approach is planned only for the high school and middle school. Muto did say, however, that elements of the BYOD approach could crop up at the elementary level in the next five years.

This proposed technology budget also would have officials defer purchases of new computers for the high school the programming lab until the 2013-14 school year and push delay buying new computers for the newspaper and yearbook labs until the 2015-16 school year.

Source: http://www.yourmurrysville.com/murrysvillestar/article/tech-budget-would-shift-laptop-responsibility-district-families

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