The Perry School District is in the process of implementing their first one-to-one laptop program, and this week we are going to run down the specifics of the program and its benefits to Perry schools.

Technology Director Rich Nichols says he wasn’t in favor of the one-to-one concept at first because he was unsure of the educational benefits.  He then realized all the different ways technology can help teachers instruct students individually and now he looks forward to rolling out this program.

Nichols says the district spent a lot of time picking out all the details of the program, including which laptops to use.

“We really tried iPads, we tried laptops, we even tried cell phones for a bit and the laptop we chose was a Lenovo X131 model.  We chose that model specifically because it’s built with reinforced edges to protect the monitor, its got an eight and a half hour battery life, reinforced hinges, spill resistant keyboard, so it’s really designed for a K-12 student” says Nichols.

Nichols says cost was also a factor.

“We ended up getting these machines for $449, which is cheaper than an iPad and really that was about $200 less than we were able to purchase them before because of the quantity” says Nichols.

Around 100 middle and high school students chosen to be part of the pilot program now have their laptops in hand, with a goal of all 1,000 being distributed to students before homecoming the first week of October.