Shakopee District Puts Breaks on Technology Plan

Shakopee students hoping for an iPad purchased by the school district are in for a disappointment.

At a school board meeting earlier this month, the district decided to delay the rollout of its "1:1 device pilot program," from next year to 2014-15.

The district is considering debuting different devices—including iPads, Google Chromebooks and Windows 8 tablets—to the Pearson Sixth Grade Center in 2014-15. District-wide implementation could begin in 2015-16.

“The reason we delayed it a year was we wanted to make sure we had the right instrument, the right technology, for the students, and to see how other districts are doing,” board member Mary Romansky told the Star Tribune.

Next year, the district will give all sixth-grade teachers iPads, in an effort to acclimate them to the technology.

“We’ve watched a lot of our colleagues out there making $5 million-dollar-plus decisions,” Superintendent Rod Thompson told the Star Tribune. “What we’ve learned … is that our students have to be able to use any platform when they graduate.”