On Monday Apple announced an correspondence to lease more than 17,000 iBook laptop computer data processor to the Cobb County , Ga. school district . annunciate as the big ever “ one to one ” cypher initative , Apple ’s deal could net as many as 63,000 iBooks if it ’s successful . It ’s part of Cobb County ’s “ Power to Learn ” program .
The goal , said Cobb County School District Porto Rico director Jay Dillon , is to see students get enthusiastic about learning in raw and exciting ways . “ We ’re hoping that this will help kid who have never been mad about discover before to get unrestrained , ” Dillon told MacCentral .
“ We have a total of 14 in high spirits school in Cobb County , ” said Dillon . “ So we ’re going to pick four of them as manifestation web site . ” Dillon said the decision on which schools will be picked will be made in the next few calendar week .
“ The systems will be rolled out a little bit at a time , ” said Dillon . Dillon explain that a terminal determination has n’t been made yet on when kids in Cobb County school will start to get the machines , but schoolhouse district authorities expect the rollout will occur of late in the first semester or early in the 2d semester .
get word from retiring experience
When get their request for proposals ( RFPs ) from possible laptop computer marketer , Cobb County school officials researched the one - to - one computing travail made in other parts of the area , including Henrico County , Va. , the State Department of Maine and Schaumburg , Ill. Learning from some of those programs ’ shortage was key when making their decisions , said Dillon . A case in breaker point was Microsoft Office .
“ Henrico County did n’t get Office applications with their iBooks , ” Dillon say . Cobb County made sure to let in that as part of their RFP , which Apple has accord to — Microsoft Office will be installed on all the novel iBooks . Also included will be iLife ‘ 05 , a graphing computer app and World Book Encyclopedia .
Ultimately , Cobb County received bid from four major laptop computer makers : Apple , Dell , IBM and HP . “ They were all very serious proposals , ” say Dillon . “ All of them did a overnice job of meeting those specification we set in our RFP . ”
While monetary value was an significant agent , allege Dillon , it was n’t the only reason why Cobb County turned to Apple .
“ The musical accompaniment we ’ll get from Apple is a tremendous part of their proposal , ” said Dillon . Apple will leave Cobb County with a labor management squad , and will defend a local fixture facility , with the destination of making sure that no student or teacher is without an iBook for more than a twenty-four hours .
With Apple in the main responsible for underpin the computers , the Cobb County school territorial dominion ’s own IT department wo n’t be burdened with having to take care of 17,000 newfangled data processor . What ’s more , instructor will undergo training program in July and August , following their restoration from summer good luck .
Dillon also explained that Cobb County is one by one bidding out the installment and maintenance of the wireless networking substructure that will be needed to allow these thousands of iBooks to surf the cyberspace and pass with other connection resource . That element was not included as part of the laptop computer acquisition itself .
University of Georgia to review program
Some sentence after the “ Power to Learn ” political platform has been put in place , expert from the University of Georgia ’s Learning & Performance Support Laboratory will measure its effectiveness . Pending the review of their research , Cobb County school day officials will vote on whether to continue or expand the program to the 63,000 systems Apple hopes to see put in place .
The university ’s analysis will let in data on everything from the support and maintenance of the iBooks to the effectiveness of teacher training , how student discipline and involvement changes , and how the iBooks regard schoolroom instruction and alteration in the educatee ’ work .
Once that analysis is concluded , its resolution will be give to the Cobb County school board and to the county ’s residents . “ We ’ll present the resultant role to the community , ” tell Dillon , before deciding on the next step .
If the “ Power to Learn ” political program is receive well and a budget is uncommitted , Cobb County will make a decision on how to expand the programme , and up to 63,000 iBooks could potentially make their direction into the hands of Cobb County ’s mellow schooltime scholar . If it turns out the plan is a unsuccessful person , or the coffers are empty , the laptops at each of the pilot situation would be redistribute throughout the county , and any remain investment trust in the budget allocate for these system would be used to upgrade lick electronic computer and buy portable wireless pushcart for Cobb County schoolhouse classrooms .
Budgeted from especial tax
The money used to pay for the iBooks comes from a taxation taxation program in Georgia call Special Purpose Location Option sale Tax , or SPLOST . The state of Georgia allows individual counties to levy an superfluous sales taxation of up to two percent , and that money can be used to fund capital improvement in the county .
Already US$ 23.5 million of Cobb County ’s SPLOST tax income have been earmarked for the four - yr lease program with Apple , or about $ 5.9 million per class . That ’s less than one - quarter of the amount that had been describe by local media , accord to schoolhouse official . That total defend about four percent of the overall SPLOST program . Each iBook will be the county about $ 350 per electronic computer , per class .
