Downscaling Technology
By Lauren Barack -- School Library Journal, 9/1/2005
Debbie Tschirgi hasn’t given up the dream of a computer for each student. It’s just that she realizes it may not be realistic.
“That may be the right thing to do,” says the director of educational technology for the Vancouver, WA-based Educational Service District 112. “But it’s not the best thing to do. It’s not sustainable.”
Tschirgi, who collects bids for technology equipment for 31 K–12 public schools, made a grant proposal to some of her vendors: a technology platform based on interactive whiteboards that could service an entire classroom—from just one computer. The Sustainable Classroom Grant Project (www.esd112.org/edtech/sustainableclass.html) attracted many supporters, including SMART Technologies, Hitachi, and Promethean, who donated some of the equipment and offered steep discounts on the rest.
“Districts are asking for models for alternatives to computers in the classroom because with all these computers their level of tech support skyrockets,” says Tschirgi.
Donated laptops, desktops, and printers are wonderful, to be sure, but it’s difficult to maintain the equipment over time, especially for cash-strapped school districts. Even the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has donated millions of dollars in computer equipment to libraries nationwide, has found it now needs to go back with additional grants years later just to support the equipment.
Tschirgi’s project provides some funding for maintenance, and the districts involved must provide a laptop, no more than a year old, to each teacher, along with tech support, and a $350 budget for technical emergencies. The project launches in 10 classrooms this fall and will involve about 900 students from kindergartners to 12th graders. A companion study will track the initiative and student performance.
Tschirgi believes the model is one that schools can truly afford to maintain. “Technology in the classroom used to mean computers,” she says. “Now the definition is more broad and can mean anything that meets the needs of teachers and students.”
