Student Laptops Coming to Leander Schools

The Leander school district is preparing to equip students with laptops and tablets to be used as digital learning tools.

The program is called Mobile Leander ISD and was made possible after the school district’s board approved the sale of bonds in spring 2014 to make $17.8 million available for technology replacement, according to the program website.

The program will implement new technology recommendations for secondary school students when it is completely rolled out in the Spring 2016 semester. One of the recommendations includes supplying a windows-based laptop for each student and teacher. Another is to significantly reduce the amount of shared equipment and computer labs.

So far, the program has been tested in three pilot campuses, Henry Middle School, Canyon Ridge Middle School and Leander High School,according to a handbook given to students and parents.

So far, the pilot program has been a success, Canyon Ridge Principal Susan Sullivan told Community Impact Newspaper.

“[The program] has been powerful,” Sullivan said. “It really has changed the way we’re teaching and the kids are learning,” Sullivan told the paper.

One of the most beneficial aspects of the program has been the advances made for students to collaborate over applications like Google Drive.

The program represents a shift from a classroom-based technology program to a program that puts individual students at the center.

“We really feel like giving our kids more experience with interacting with digital content and managing their digital world is going to give them a leg up when they get to college,” Sarah Martinez, the district’s senior director for information technology services, told Community Impact Newspaper.

The goal of the program is to give students, “Increased access to digital content, resources and devices to support anytime/anywhere learning,” according to the handbook.

With students being given computers for the first time, parents might be wondering what this all means for them.

The school district will be collecting a non-refundable fee of $70 a year for the computers. For students who qualify for free or reduced rice meals, that fee will drop to $35 a year. The computers will not be replacing textbooks, and students will still have to complete many homework assignments in hard-copy form. The district will also use a firewall system to block access to certain websites while they are using the district’s internet, but parents are still advised that students can use their computers to connect to other networks without content filters.

The school district will also be holding a number of meetings for parents to learn more about the program. Here is the schedule.