K-12 MacBook Air Program

jstandre
New Contributor III

We are rolling out a pilot one-to-one program with MacBook Airs in our school district. I just wanted to start a thread to see if anyone had any management tips, best practices, or pitfalls to watch for?

As the new school year creeps closer, I find myself to be more stressed daily.

7 REPLIES 7

CasperSally
Valued Contributor II

Have policy written that spells out what you do when X happens, such as a student loses a laptop, damages a laptop, etc etc etc.

We are happy with the airs here hardware wise over the macbooks we started with.

geoffreykobrien
Contributor

a good resource:
http://www.maine.gov/mlti/

jstandre
New Contributor III

Thank you for the information.

freddie_cox
Contributor III

Be prepared for... everything... to happen.

As @CasperSally said, policy will help everyone. It's impossible to plan for all the things that will be thrown your way but go ahead and get a good process in place for things such as

  • Lost/Stolen - Spell out the steps each stakeholder will take. Student/Parent, School Admin, Tech Dept, Security, Etc. This helps keep things from getting lost in the mix.
  • Damage/Repair Procedure - If you're charging, spell out possible costs including whole unit replacement
  • Be prepared to absorb some costs - Some things just aren't worth the fight.
  • Some things are classroom management issues and not IT issues. Don't get pressured into being the police.
  • Lysol Wipes - Some of these things will get gross.

Chris_Hafner
Valued Contributor II

Shoot me an email chris_hafner@brewsteracademy.org We'd be happy to share what we've learned over the past 21 years of our 1:1 implementation along with our existing policies and procedures. It might give you a good reference and base from all of our successes and failures. Every school and district is different. That said, it's just too much to post here.

jcarr
Release Candidate Programs Tester

damienbarrett
Valued Contributor

Thanks for the mention. I'm happy to share with anyone what we've learned over the last 4 years of our 1:1 laptop program (1000 MacBook Pros; now Airs). We have lots and lots of resources on our website (www.mka.org) and some are mentioned in my presentation linked above. Feel free to contact me.