Computers for the masses

Starting with the 2011-2012 school year, Putnam Co R1 High School has made netbooks available to the students. Focusing primarily on the freshman class these netbooks are available for $30 per quarter with prices scaling for upper classmen who don’t have 3 years of school left. 8^th graders will even have the opportunity to take part in the project around January. The school is merely recouping its losses at that point since the school can’t afford to outright buy all those machines at once, but the project is not a fundraiser either.

The concept behind this project is if you get computers into as many kids hands as possible and once they have them, to incorporate their use into daily work then the students get the experience they need for working in college and beyond without having to have a class that focuses in ‘how to use a computer’. The problem is that in this area many of the students that don’t already have access to a computer are in that situation because of financial reasons. Let’s face it, buying a computer for each of your kids can get really expensive really fast. So with this program the school east the costs up front and recoups the expenses over the next few years. During the project period the laptop is managed by the technology department of the school. Meaning that antivirus, required software, regular maintenance, and repair labor are all covered as part of the project.

Each participant receives a netbook running windows 7, Microsoft Office, and access to a 3 yr warranty on their machine. After the project period is complete (3 years for all but seniors and juniors) the cost of the laptop is covered, the licenses are taken care of, and the equipment is released to the user. The user is also given the option to have the machine re-imaged back to a factory state free of the schools management and filtering software, unlocking the machine completely. If the user declines, then the filtering software is removed after graduation and the management software reverts to a dormant state.

As part of the project Rural Digital Services will give a 50% discount on any labor charges on any of these machines after the project period. So students get a good computer, software, support, and a deal on servicing for the life of the machine. Lucky kids…