April
15, 2008
Dear
Parent or Guardian,
We
are interested in your feedback. For those of you who have
not heard, Ozark Adventist Academy is looking at putting
an Apple MacBook Laptop in the hands of every student and
teacher. The reasons are many.
This
program would help students in many ways. As we migrated
to electronic books a student’s book-load would get
lighter. It would help students be more organized and efficient,
and every student would have access to the tools for making
a myriad of creative projects for their classes like a
video presentation or a musical number. Students and teachers
alike would have access to the vast (filtered) resources
on the internet. When the student graduates, they would already
have a computer to get them going in college.
Teachers
would also know that their students all have access to the
same technology and programs, which will enable them to plan
some really great projects. They can have students create
immersive videos, informative web pages and just about any
number of media and publication. It will be easier to track
papers that are turned in. Teachers who have participated
in these programs in the past have found that it helps them
to more easily differentiate instruction for students.
Apple
was chosen as the vendor because it is the number one, 1
to 1 laptop program provider in the nation. The laptop we
are looking at is the MacBook, which is sturdy, versatile,
and has an average life span of 6 years, about twice of what
a regular value pc would be. If taken care of it will last
a student through academy and college. The computers are
made from poly carbonate plastic (same stuff as football
helmets) and have a slot loading DVD drive, magnetic latch
and power connector. The operating system, Mac OS X, is not
susceptible to viruses and spyware so you don’t have
to install anti-virus and anti-spyware software that slow
your computer down. The maintenance needs are half of what
are needed for Windows and Linux machines. If needed you
can run Windows and other operating systems on it as well.
The
cost for the laptops would be spread out over the course
of 4 years. It would work out to about $40 dollars per month.
Most of that cost pays for the laptop, part of it pays for
the maintenance, updates and technology access throughout
the time the student is here. At the end of 4 years a graduate
will be able to take the computer with them. If they are
not here that long they can pay the difference. The credit
toward the computer would be $300 dollars per year. For example,
if a student has been with the program for only two years,
they would need to pay $600 dollars to be able to take the
laptop.
If
everything goes as planned, this program could go online
for the 2009-2010 school year.
If
this program was to be implemented for next year (2008-2009),
a $40 dollar per month charge above tuition would have
to be assessed. If you would like to see this happen
for next year, then we need to hear from you. There will
be a link to this letter and a survey on the school website.
You can send feedback through the survey, or e-mail me
(jstrack@ozarkacademy.org) or give me a call (479) 736-2221
x 1201.
Once again, in order to implement this for next year,
we would need to hear from you as soon as possible (read,
end of April) by one of the above methods.
Thank
you for your time.
Sincerely
yours,
Jason Strack, MS.Ed.
Network Administrator/Computer Instructor
Videos and more information is available.
