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The student news site of Atlantic High School

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The student news site of Atlantic High School

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“One-to-One” Plan Gaining Talk

One-to-One+Plan+Gaining+Talk

By Brecklyn Carey

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Roger Warne demonstrates the capabilities of the MacBook Air to a classroom. Warne is pushing the school district to adopt a “One-to-One” plan.

On Monday Sept. 23, Atlantic High School students got a first look at the future of the district, “One to One” technology. The plan is that each Atlantic student from K-12 will get his or her very own technological device accessible to do schoolwork at anytime.  Students in K-5 will have iPad minis, grades 6-8 will have Chromebooks, and students in high school will each have MacBook Airs.

The idea is that Atlantic Schools will become completely paperless in,”fingers crossed”, one year. The plan was proposed in May by Roger Warne, the head of technology in the district. “We’re kinda dragging behind compared to the rest of the school districts in this aspect.” said Warne.  “Out of 350 school districts, over 1/2 have a One-to-One program. We’re on the half that do not.”

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The MacBook Air is what Warne would like the high schools to use once the “One-to-One” plan would be approved.

Several teachers are on the “One-To-One” team, including Spanish teacher Dan Vargason. As a completely experimental process, Vargason and Warne presented the MacBook Airs to the 4th period Spanish 2 class.  The class began by Warne explaining the new technology to the students. He explained that a MacBook Air was a full power computer and can handle the wear and tear of high school students.  Each student would have a computer with them all day long, complete with a case and a charger and would be expected to charge the device at home (similar to a cell phone or iPod).

When asked about the differences of the MacBook Air as opposed to the other laptops used Warne said, “You will notice the differences as soon as you press the button.” n The machines started up automatically, no more waiting for the start up music to sound which was music to Warne’s ears. The computers will not overheat and are silent. Also, Warne has applied a unique operating system on the school’s new computers called Parallel. This system allows the MacBook Airs to run the Apple AND Windows 7 operating systems. All the student has to do to switch from one to the other is swipe on the mouse pad with 3 fingers, running right to left. Adobe flash player is now able to be installed on the computers. Each of these machines cost about $1,000.  The reason the school has not guaranteed this plan is because of that cost.

 “Money.” said Warne when asked why the plan may not be put into effect. “It will cost 600 grand just for the high school to become one-to-one, $1000 for each MacBook Air, and then each Chromebook is $300. The question is, will a chrome book do what we need it to do? The MacBook will do everything you want it to do, whatever its ever been asked to do . The students, the teachers, all need to be great salesmen. They know we need the system, but convincing them its worth the money is a different question.”

One way Warne will make sure the computers are put to good use is by teaching the teachers how to use the technology.  “Most of the schools might have bought the device and had thought it was as great just as it is, but their problem is they hadn’t shown the teachers how to use it in their classroom. Can you imagine walking into a classroom and these $1000 (computers) never gotten out, they stayed in the bookbags?” Vargason was explaining in his class how eventually, all of his assignments will be emailed to students, and lessons, notes, and projects will be online also.  This presses a district to instate a “One-to-One” plan.  Technology is evolving forcing teaching styles to as well.

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