By KARI BLURTON
Hays Post
At Monday’s Hays USD 489 Board of Education work session, board members and staff debated what many in the tech world do every day: Which is better, Microsoft or Apple?
District Technology Director Brian Drennon told board members after research and discussion, the Technology Committee is recommending the purchase of 152 iPads for K-12 teachers to begin testing after the new year.
Drennon said the iPads fall within the technology budget and fit well with committee’s five-year plan to update USD 489 for current and future technology needs.
He said the exact cost of the iPads will not be known until a request for proposal goes out, but said Apple historically works with schools to make the tablets accessible.
Drennon said USD 489 K-5 elementary teachers are already leaning toward iPads, but there might be different needs for middle and high school teachers. He said teachers need a chance to test the product and training to learn how the iPads and app technology can be used before making a final recommendation.
Board members Greg Schwartz questioned why the iPads would need to be purchased now.
“Why an iPad?” Schwartz asked. “You don’t have to have an iPad to go online and research how to institute technology into the classroom. … I don’t want to make a bad mistake,” he said, referring to the district’s leasing of laptops eight years ago.
Using technology to just “get online and do research” is exactly what the technology committee is trying to avoid, according to tech committee member and Hays Middle School Assistant Principal Shannon Demel.
“We want to utilize technology as an actual teaching tool to ‘transform’ classrooms,” she said, adding the “app World,” did not exist five years ago and offers useful classroom applications.
“If we are really wanting to push our students into learning at a deeper level, then those are the tools we need to put in their hands, because those are the things that will allow them to create, to design, to critique and will transform our classrooms from a teacher-driven classroom to a student-driven classroom,” she said. “There is a lot of research: If you hear it, see it and do it, you’re going to learn 90 percent of the information.”
Demel said there are some classrooms in Hays already using iPad technology due to purchases from parent associations, but hopes one day every teacher and student will have the latest technology at their fingertips.
Marty Straub, Hays High School principal and technology committee member, said the committee has been visiting with other schools that use Apple or Microsoft, and the committee’s recommendations are informed.
“I just want you to know we are taking this task very seriously,” he said.
Drennon will propose the iPad purchases at Monday’s BOE meeting, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at Rockwell Administration Center.
Other members of the Technology Committee are Wilson Elementary Principal Tom Meagher; teachers Jeanie Michaelis, Ted Foster and Bobbie Dinkel; FHSU Network Administrator Derek Johnson; and Alan Wamser of Hays Medical Center. Superintendent Dean Katt and Curriculum Director Shanna Dinkel also attend some meetings for informational purposes.
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