It looks like that the days of Huntsville students, who carries a back pack full of the books numbered.  Do not fret over it, as this is not a dreadful thing.  The students would get a laptop to replace their books.

The district has purchased over 3,600 computers over the past month since Superintendent Casey Wardynski wants, to make some changes by forcing their school in creating a 21st-century school system.

Wardynski says that in the old days, bringing such technology prohibited around the school as it is too expensive and would create some jealousy among students.  Now that, people are living in the age of technology the students must be kept abreast, so they are going to provide them with their own computer that they could use while in school.

All the principals are going to get their own laptop and IPad.  Each elementary school is also going to  be assigned 28 iPads, and all fifth-graders are going to be allotted a netbook.

Netbooks makes about 60 percent of the purchases.  The dream technology made possible through the roughly $853,000 set aside in the district’s 2012 budget for technological advancements. Besides the devices for the fifth-graders, Butler High School is also going to get 250 netbooks for its ninth-graders.

Each high school is also going to receive 30 MacBook Air computers and extra allotment of laptops. Some teachers are going to get computers, and schools with large numbers of machines are going to have carts on which they could charge and load software onto the laptops.

According to Wardynski and Aaron King, the superintendent’s transition director, their direct goal is hand in computers to all fifth- and ninth-graders. The students are going to use those computers for up to four years, at which time they are going to be replaced.

Wardynski added that a laptop could last up to four years in operating condition.

In the last part of the 2010-2011 academic year; however, around 85 percent of the computers in the schools were five years old or older.

Through the distribution and upgrade of the computers, all students are going to have a school-issued computer. The district is going to be buying new technology annually.

The central office is also going to acquire a total of 142 computers. The central office and the schools are going to be outfitted with wireless capabilities.

Safety measures are going to be built into the network in an effort to keep students from getting into inappropriate or dangerous materials because of their computers.  When  the planned network got compared to that in a hotel, King explained that some areas of the network is  also going to be “cordoned off” so that they could block access to sensitive district data, including students’ personal information.