=20
For several years Choate has been a community where students have
brought their own laptops or desktops for use in their dorm rooms. The
school has provided computer resources in classes through a variety of
methods ranging from dedicated classrooms, laptop carts, thin client
terminals, and science lab machines. Last year, we embarked in
dramatically increasing our learning system offering by expanding our
use of Blackboard with the launching of the community system.
=20
Choate has been and will continue to be a dual platform institution.
Our belief is that both Windows based and Apple solutions fit specific
needs in our community. Faculty have historically been offered a choice
with their school owned laptops and we will continue to do so for the
foreseeable future.=20
=20
As technology has increased and faculty desire to incorporate grown, we
have reached a point where we are challenged to meet the demand for
computers within classes.
=20
Choate has reached the same conclusion from two different vantage
points, one from academic technology and one from information
technology. It is time for Choate to consider a laptop requirement and
require students to purchase a Choate endorsed model. =20
=20
I seek your input. If you school has a laptop program or laptop
requirement, can you take a few moments and answer the below questions?
Thank you in advance.
=20
1. What were the goals of the program? Were those goals met?
=20
2. What was the budgetary impact of the program (labor and capital)?
=20
3. What challenges occurred that were not anticipated?
=20
4. Did the school specify laptop models for purchase or were
students able to purchase any laptop?
=20
5. How were financial aid students handled?
=20
6. If you are a day/boarding school, did you require anything
different for day students?
=20
7. How are repairs handled?
=20
8. How may FTE's were devoted to the program?
=20
Thank you.
=20
=20
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Andrew J. Speyer
Director of Information Technology Services
Choate Rosemary Hall
aspeyer@choate.edu
[voice] 203.697.2105
[help desk] 203.697.2572
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
=20
=20
[ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
Submissions to ISED-L are released under a Creative Commons license.
