By Riley Langefeld, copy editor
District 214 is in the final stages of implementing a plan that would allow students across the district to keep their iPads following graduation.
According to Technology Systems Supervisor Kevin Kolcz, the district has been considering this plan for some time, but it is now almost certainly going to be in place starting in the 2017-18 school year. Under this system, students would be able to use their iPad for four years, then take it with them as their own after they finish high school.
Under the current system, a paid protection policy is optional for students. With the new district plan, this annual fee would become mandatory. This money would go toward various technology resources, including digital textbooks, as well as protection for the devices. Kolcz says that this policy would be a win-win situation for the district, as four-year-old iPads are difficult to recycle for new classes.
“It’s a tool that they’ve used now for four years,” Kolcz said. “And then after four years there’s not a whole lot that we can functionally do with it.”
The district hopes that students will value and use the devices more when they feel more ownership.
Kolcz says that this plan will alleviate some difficulties for the district, give graduates a tool for their future plans and hopefully incentivize students to take better care of the devices.
“It’s a benefit on both sides — for us and for the students,” Kolcz said. “If they know they’re taking it with them after four years, I think there’s a little more buy-in to the program, and there’s a little more buy-in to taking care of the device. … And then it really becomes their tool, not just this tool [they will] use for four years.”