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LOGAN — Pulling a small laptop out of a zippered sleeve is a welcome change for many students at Logan High School who are used to lugging a backpack full of textbooks.
"I actually carried around major textbooks for math, science, English and history," sophomore Clint Harris said. "And, oh my gosh, it was really heavy."
Still, administrators in the Logan City School District are interested in more than simply giving teenagers a break from lifting. The program, which has provided for more than 1,600 laptops, is a pilot for the rest of Utah, run through the Governor's Office of Economic Development.
"We're way excited about this," David Long, director of educational and technical services for the district, said. "We can do things now in the classroom and connect students to experts and other content and other students out there in ways that we never thought of before."
Long says Logan High's current $3 million reconstruction project helped position the school for the pilot program. Upgrades needed for the laptops, like monitoring and filtering software, along with some 64 WiFi access points, were rolled into the building costs. A state grant partially covered the $1.2 million cost, and the district contributed an additional $200,000. While there is a large initial cost, Long hopes the laptops will ultimately help save money on the future, cutting back on the estimated $1 million the school district spends on paper each year.
We can do things now in the classroom and connect students to experts and other content and other students out there in ways that we never thought of before.
–David Long
For many students, the change has given them more resources and made learning more fun. In addition, some say it's better preparing them for a technology-centered world.
"It definitely feels more natural," Theos Wallis, a senior, said. "On my own time, I can work on my online courses. Or whenever I feel inspired, I can practice music or art or anything on here."
"I think that our generation is getting a lot more geared towards technology," another senior, Heather Anderson, said. "Getting to know how to use them now is smart, because I think it's going to become a bigger part of everyone's lives."
District and school officials began handing out laptops to students last week, and the final group of freshmen received their computers Monday.
