CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – This upcoming school year, all Horry County high school students will be receiving new dell laptops to replace their tablets they have been using for the past four years.
The replacement is a part of the school district’s Personalized Digital Learning Initiative, or PDL, which gives each fifth grade, middle and high school student individual access to a digital device, with new replacements every four years.
This year is the high school’s first technology refresh since they began the PDL initiative with their Dell Venue tablets in 2014.
“Technology changes constantly,” says Ashley Gasperson, the Digital Communications Coordinator for the Horry County School District. “A four year refresh on a mobile device is probably just the right amount window for that,” she says.
High school students will receive full Dell laptops that can be converted into tablets to stay up-to-date with recent technology.
The school district says these digital tools are personalized for each individual student, allowing them to work at their own pace and constantly advance by keeping them engaged.
“Providing them these devices and the personalized learning modules allows the students to work at their level all the time,” says Gasperson.
Horry County School Distrist says, however, the cost of the program increases with the continuous growth in enrollment.
“We allocate $600 per student for a device, so if the number of students is increasing we still have that same pot of money to pull from, so we may spend a little bit more one a 1-to-1 device, but it’s still coming from that overall technology budget,” says Gasperson.
This year’s round of device replacements for high school students cost the district around $900,000. According to Gasperson, the funds came from the district’s $9 million overall technology budget.
The district says the technology updates are vital in order to continue providing the best education for their students.
“Lots of different learning modules; lots of different online resources to allow the diversity in the instruction, and to allow the specialized instruction to the different levels within a classroom, so it’s truly allowing it to be independent to what that student’s needs are,” says Gasperson.