Our school, Chimacum Middle School, has had a tech plan for moving to a 1:1 student to device ratio. Originally, we devised the plan to have every student use an iPad. Then we decided iPad Minis would be more cost effective. Very recently we decided to give students Chromebook Flips. The plan is sound and has been waiting for funding. Our district is currently running on huge bond for the second time because facilities are in desperate need of repair. Because of this our tech plan has been on hold while our students have either one computer lab to share or devices in classrooms that are so old they can’t be used for much other than word processing.
Here’s our plan:
It’s a pretty good plan. Desperate for funding and not wanting to see another group of middle school kids go without we put together the following Indiegogo Campaign (goo.gl/ATkgAq) to see if we can raise some money to implement at least part of the plan:
We need help spreading the word to anyone who is able to support our plan. Starting a full 1:1 by just purchasing a $300 Chromebook Flip for all of our students would require over $70,000 but we chose to use Indiegogo because no matter what we raise we get to keep and use! Right now we have plans for at least equipping one grade level if we don’t get enough to equip all three.
Even if we can’t get enough to equip one whole grade level we can still make good use of having a set of even 10 Chromebook Flips. I want to start an after school tech club. Each student in that club would get a Chromebook Flip. The student’s job is to find ways to use it to learn in every class she has. We would meet to brainstorm best practices for learning and sharing learning. We would figure out how to solve tech problems. Those students will in turn become the tech support for our school! They can help students who bring their own tech and their teachers with tech problems!
For this last plan $3,000 would greatly help us! So please spread this campaign and help us bring our rural school, and eventually our district, into the 21st Century!
Here’s a poster some of my 6th graders helped me put together to share around town:
