New Laptops - An Update

well, after 5 long years of lobbying for more resources at school, we have      

finally received a set of new laptops on a nifty, purpose-built trolley! it's taken this long to work through the "red tape" since my last post, but i have used them this last week, and the kids are pretty rapt. i was "lucky" enough to be away on an emergency overseas trip when they arrived, so i missed all the teething problems!

unfortunately, no one was interested in getting a set of chromebooks, even though it would have meant we could have bought several classrooms worth for what we spent on a single set, but beggars cannot be choosers. and there's also something about looking a gift horse in the mouth...

the only drawback was that at the oh-so-excited announcement to our department that they were coming, some people were not nearly as excited, but you can't please all the people all the time, right?

in short, this trolley represents, to me, 7 years of forcing kids to use substandard equipment so that i could demonstrate need. 5 years of going to meetings, begging senior management and the BoT personally, struggling to complete multi-media projects (no word processing for my students!) without the resources required, making enemies (because i don't tolerate bullshit well) out of those who should have been helping our school be a leader in edtech. i guess that's a pretty heavy burden for one set to carry, even in a nifty trolley. and the movement for wireless is still ongoing.

that aside, i am very pleased that we can ease the incredible stress on minimal resources. my students have just completed the new standard, 3.9, using them, and we will be using them for three weeks next term as well with our clockwork orange collaborative presos. but those are other posts. in the meantime: HOORAY!