Technology
Director's Update
Last year the Natick community was made aware of our needs for updated technology in our schools and supported the district's efforts to put in place a replacement plan for district wide technology upgrades. This plan enabled us to purchase approximately 500 laptops this past summer. Over 300 faculty and staff were trained and provided laptops. In addition, this fall each of our five elementary schools received a mobile lab consisting of 25 laptops for student use.
Please click on the image below to view a brief video and see why our efforts on improving school technology is so important. It just may ignite a sense of urgency in you too!!!
Our plan for this year is to continue to focus on the needs of our teachers and provide them additional tools to share their laptop experience with their students. In order to meet this need we are reaching out to the Natick community and local business to help fund this effort.
Specifically we are looking to equip all classrooms with LCD projectors and to begin introducing interactive whiteboard technology into each of our schools. Both of these tools will allow teachers to share digital content with the students on a regular basis and is feedback we received directly from teachers as we conducted our laptop rollout this summer.
The cost of a good quality LCD projector along with a mobile cart is approximately $1,100.
The cost of an interactive white board with software ranges from $3,000 - $5,000 depending on how many bells and whistles are bundled in.
The Natick Public Schools has approximately 325 classrooms within its eight schools that could benefit from both of the above technologies.
Through the good work of members of the Parent Coordinating Council we are working together in a district wide effort to raise both community awareness and financial support (A Taste for Technology Fundraiser) to put these technologies into classrooms this year.
If you are interested in making a donation to support these initiatives please contact one of the co-chairs of the Parent Coordinating Council Amy Mistrot at mamistrot@rcn.com or Chris McLarnon at bearhill8@aol.com and let them know how you can help.
If there are any questions or concerns on how these devices will be deployed or used within the classroom then please contact me directly.
Sincerely,
Dennis E. Roche, CISA
Director of Technology
Natick Public Schools
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