Oskaloosa’s 1 to 1 Laptop Rollout Begins
Parents and Students waited in line at the Oskaloosa High School to sign up and pay for the '1 and 1' laptop program
Oskaloosa, Iowa – The doors of the Oskaloosa High School opened up at 5:30 PM this past Thursday to allow parents and students access to the building to begin the process of paying for and also learning about the 1 to 1 Laptop Program.
Mary Cooksley, Curriculum Director for the Oskaloosa Community School District, talked about the rollout. “Tonight basically is really the management side of it. Once our students have our computers, that’s where I think the real magic is going to begin is in the classroom. We’re going to be able to do more things with project based learning. A deeper knowledge to have our students be able to compete, not just with people in Oskaloosa, or the state, but hopefully prepare our kids for what they have to face out in the world, competitively across the nation, and across the world,” Cooksley said.
“Parents able to take the opportunity to come tonight, I believe they have next Tuesday night at 5:30 pm. I think next Monday at 1:30 pm,” Cooksley said about further opportunity to prepare the student and parents for the laptop program. If they can’t attend the Thursday meeting, then there will be a couple of other meetings where parents will be presented the same information provided at the Thursday meeting.
With many new projects such as this, scheduling conflicts arose with other events held within the school district. “That was an unfortunate thing that slipped through. This is a brand new thing so, next year we will have learned some things and we’ll be able to do a much better job when the 8th graders come up to 9th grade I think. This is a learning opportunity for all of us I think,” Cooksley said about the scheduling conflict.
With 725 ordered laptops, Cooksley said they were going to be issuing right around 700 of those.
“Because of virus issues and unknown things coming into the school we’re issuing the laptop. Not having other laptops come in just because of that reason and compatibility with programs we have,” Cooksley stated on why the program is only allowing school issued laptop computers into the program.
