Shanghai American School Educational Programs Office

Technology 2012: The Future of Learning @ SAS (First of a three-part series)

The missing technological element is true one-to-one computing, in which each student has a device he or she can work on, keep, customize, and take home. For true technological advance to occur, the computers must be personal to each learner. When used properly and well for education, these computers become extensions of the students’ personal self and brain.
- Marc Prensky, Don’t Bother Me Mom I am Learning

In a stack of papers on my desk I have buried an old memo handed to me recently by Bernadette Carmody. The exact date escapes me, but the year and month do not: April, 2000.  This was the date of the first feasibility study about the implementation of student laptops in middle schools and high schools at Shanghai American School.
I have to admit that the first time I read the memo, I didn’t really shudder at the thought that we have been talking about putting the most powerful learning tool ever invented into the hands of students for nine years — until I started talking about it.

Then it hit me.

We’ve been talking and planning and training for a 1:1 laptop program at SAS for NINE years.

Now is the time to make this change and I believe we will see some fundamental changes in the way your children access, learn and CREATE to enhance their learning in the future at SAS.

1:1 Laptop implementation begins in the autumn of 2009
In the January board meeting the SAS Board of Directors voted to allow the levying of a technology fee for laptops for students in grades designated by the administration.  The plan, rolled out in the Student Programs Committee and discussed in the finance committee outlines a plan that will provide each student at Shanghai American School in grades 7, 8, 9 and 10 with a 1:1 Technology laptop bundle that includes:

• Macbook Computer with 2 GB of RAM
• Intel Core 2 Duo
• 2GB DDR2 Memory
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
• Custom SAS Computer Bag
• Software including: Microsoft Office, iLife, iWorks, Adobe CS and specialized content area software.
• Access to network services and software necessary for classroom and school collaborative experiences.
• Three-year Applecare Warranty

As agreed to by the SAS board of directors in the January board meeting, the mandatory technology fee will be 11,500 RMB, and the computer will be the property of the student and their family at the end of three years or once they leave SAS

SAS, Shanghai American School, One-to-One Computing @ SAS

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