"I don’t think [students] should have to leave behind the technology they use when they’re not in school. . . they have grown up in a technological world. The world they enter after they leave school will be technological. And I think that we should be educating them for that world." - Rae Niles
“WE’RE NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE—OR ARE WE?”
A VERY SMALL TOWN TAKES A VERY BIG LEAP IN CLASSROOM COMPUTER USE
Sedgwick, Kansas, may seem like an unlikely spot to find a school district on the leading edge of educational technology. Located about 25 miles north of Wichita, Sedgwick has 1500 residents living within in its barely-one-square-mile city limits. But the Sedgwick Public Schools have done something that other districts, however large, might not even think of doing in their wildest dreams. For the last five school years, the district has given every single high school student—and every one of its high school teachers—a computer. An Apple laptop computer to be specific.
Technically, students “rent” their computers for the school year, at a cost of $50 per student (which covers the cost of insurance). Of course, nearly every student’s family says “yes” to the district’s offer. And, yes, the district has purchased all of those computers on its own—using the kind of education funds available to most U.S. public schools, along with their own district money. No grants or special funding are used.
Call the district’s school board members “forward looking” or “future minded.” There’s another word that comes to mind when you see one of their classrooms in action: “smart.” Behind every smart decision, you can usually find a smart person. And in the Sedgwick Public Schools, that person is Rae Niles.
