Remove Broadband Remove Elementary Remove Laptops Remove Libraries
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What Is the True Cost of a 1:1 Device Program? One State’s Careful Rollout Offers a Look

Edsurge

As summer vacation winds down, thousands of devices—including Chromebooks, iPads, and laptops—are in the care of school district IT departments. This computing device return-and-repair ritual looks different from the end-of-year textbook and library book return that was a staple of decades past. But it’s increasingly common.

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Digital divide: Gap is narrowing, but how will schools maintain progress?

The Hechinger Report

BRUNSWICK, Maine—Like many school districts, Brunswick School Department in Maine suddenly has a lot more laptops and tablets to manage than it planned for. billion Emergency Connectivity Fund, which allows schools to apply for funds to pay for home broadband and devices for their students. 18, 2021, in Brunswick, Maine.

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A school district is building a DIY broadband network

The Hechinger Report

But Bredder can’t give students the tool he considers most indispensable to 21st-century learning — broadband internet beyond school walls. They’re building their own countywide broadband network. This is an equity issue,” said Bredder. “If The hardware on the towers then blasts that connection about 10 miles into the valley below.

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COVID-19 Is Pushing School Tech Departments to Their Limits — and Then Some

Edsurge

Innovating on the Fly Among the earliest challenges CTOs faced was how to get thousands of laptops and tablets for students and staff?while As soon as we distributed our devices to our elementary students, possible or not we had to create a student help desk,” he said.

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How one city closed the digital divide for nearly all its students

The Hechinger Report

. — After schools went remote in 2020, Jessica Ramos spent hours that spring and summer sitting on a bench in front of her local Oakland Public Library branch in the vibrant and diverse Dimond District. Ramos’ parents promised to buy her a laptop eventually, but bills mounted and it wasn’t in the family’s budget.

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Closing the homework gap so ‘no child is left offline’

The Hechinger Report

What is alarming for advocates and policy-makers, is that even for families that do have broadband internet access at home, the survey found that most are “ under-connected ,” or lacking devices or service that are sufficient and reliable enough for remote learning. An additional $7.17

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OPINION: Online homework tools trade ‘busy work’ for feedback to help end inequities in schools

The Hechinger Report

That’s vastly better than assigning students homework that doesn’t provide feedback and resembles busy work, be it photocopied word searches in the elementary grades or repetitive math worksheets across the school years. Those dull, outdated assignments don’t further learning goals and only serve to disengage students.

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