by Brenda Danial and Robby Fletcher
Students and staff members received Dell Latitude laptops as part of the county’s twelfth year of its one-to-one laptop initiative in high schools.
Technology support technician Jack France said the new laptops are lighter and faster with an extended battery life, four gigabytes of RAM, an I5 processor, 120 gigabytes of solid state memory and a hard drive similar to a flash drive.
“Everybody’s very happy. It’s definitely a lot faster than what we’re used to,” Mr. France said.
U.S. history and government teacher Jelani Lynch teaches one section of online honors government. His students use laptops daily.
“In a time of economic uncertainty, laptops allow our students to see the outside world whether it is communicating with experts in certain fields, taking virtual trips through online museums or even knowing what’s going on down the street,” Mr. Lynch said.
Instructional technical resource teacher Mike Dunanvant works with teachers to infuse technology skills into the classroom. He made posters for each teacher focusing on the county’s 21st century goals.
“The most powerful thing is access to information and the ability to communicate and collaborate,” Mr. Dunavant said.
Assistant principal Dawn Rogers is the administrator in charge of laptops. She said since the laptops were pre-assigned to students, distribution went smoothly.
Mr. France said about 25 laptops were turned in by students to the Help Desk daily last year because of hardware issues in contrast to three to six laptops this year. He said the laptops’ durability has cut his workload in half.
“You have two gigabytes worth of RAM, and the processor speed is about two times faster than last year’s,” Mr. France said.
Junior Tim Minor said he likes the battery because he does not have to charge his laptop every day.
Sophomore Tavonya Whiting said students like the new feature Desktop Sync, which saves their work even if the computer cuts off.
“I like them because they are not crashing so much, and they are a lot lighter and easier to carry around,” Tavonya said.
Mathematics teacher Jessica Meade said she has successfully used many programs on the new computers.
“I definitely think it enhances the student learning in my classroom because I’m able to do interactive things. I’m able to save the notes and other types of things that I wouldn’t be able to do if I were just working with a white board,” Ms. Meade said.
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