New Technology Brings New Opportunities for Clawson Students

For Megan Homanick's advanced art class, the implementation of new technology has been an "absolute dream."

All classrooms at the K-12 level in the received new classroom computers this year, thanks to a . The district also purchased new computers for each computer lab at the high school, middle school and elementary schools.

It's a plus for students in Homanick's class who do a lot of digital artwork and photography.

Senior Steve Carpenter said he enjoys using computers that can actually run Picnik, Google Chrome, Tumblr and other Web-based programs for classwork.

"I think (the new computers) are cool," Carpenter said. "They are faster, and you can do more with them."

Marcus Isabell, the district's technology director, said his department has installed 840 Dell desktop computers throughout the district and 10 new servers. The district has spent about $1 million of the $4 million the technology bond will generate. The bond is 1.3 mills.

The new computers run Windows 7 and include the latest version of Microsoft Office, Isabell said.

The technology bond allowed the district to place 35 computers in each lab so students don't have to share. Previously, teachers had to place two students on one computer in some cases because there wasn't enough equipment.

For each classroom, there are two or three student computers, a teacher's computer and a printer.

But the deployment of new computers hasn't been a quick and easy process. Isabell said he and his staff have been to wire computers and ensure that software runs properly on the new systems.

"We are making steady progress," Isabell said. "There are definitely some growing pains. We did have some downtime."

Because the old computers were so outdated, Isabell said, "We had to put everything in place at once.

"In ideal world, we would have phased this in," Isabell said.

The computer lab in the high school media center is expected to open Monday, Isabell said. Students have used the other three high school labs in the meantime.

Isabell said the district is now exploring options for additional technology, including classroom phone systems and interactive white boards. Those items could be implemented as soon as next year, Isabell said.