The Sulphur Springs High School campus is implementing the 1:1 Tablet Program next school year. Next school year is being described as the “year of zero” by some staff due to all the new learning techniques and advances being made. Each student will receive a tablet, making the ratio 1:1. The tablets will be used to take notes in class, stay organized, complete assignments, and learn interactively. Only one in six students attend a school that provides an individual tablet to each student in the nation.
Before 1:1, students had access to tablets or laptops through specified teachers but the devices couldn’t be taken home or out of the classroom. The use of tablets in the classroom and beyond has been introduced to Sulphur Springs Middle School students in the past year and the staff saw success. Microsoft OneNote will be used for note taking, presentations, and assignments. A few classes, the previous school year, began introducing the students to OneNote and the way it operates, hoping to make the 1:1 transition easier.
“…I would say that the process has been on going with many people involved in various aspects of the program from the purchasing and storage of devices, the updating of our high school technology usage policy, preparation of our teachers for the students to have devices, the physical roll out of the machines and maintenance, updating of our infrastructure to support the devices, and various other aspects of the program. It is credit to several departments in the district that we will be prepared for the start of school with our devices,” stated Sulphur Springs High School Principal Derek Driver.
The goal of implementing the program is to prepare graduating students for success in the 21st century world. Technology has advanced tremendously in even the past ten years. Technology is being used in the work place and learning institutions more than ever before. In addition to the traditional way of learning, the 1:1 program prepares students for life after hihg school education. The school has not set an exact date, but plan to have devices in the hands of the students as close as the first week of school.
