FHS entered the twenty-first century by storm a few years ago when we received a grant from the state to purchase technology for every classroom. Everyone knows that we used grant money to upgrade our classrooms and curriculums, but what is going to happen to all of this technology when the batteries start to fade and the pictures begin to blur? New ideas and plans are being thrown around between the head honchos on the school board and our main technology man, Mr. Hickey, about what is going to be best for the future of technology at Freedom. Here’s what we bought using over half a million dollars from the state: 500 laptops, a smart board and LCD projector for every classroom, speakers, and shared resources such as video cameras, microphones, and web cameras. The goal that we are trying to reach, now that we have all of this equipment, is to become a one-to-one high school. This would mean that there is at least one computer for every single student in the school. The hope is that at the beginning of the school year, all students will be assigned a laptop that is to become theirs for the next 10 months, and they will return it at the end of the year. This would allow students to have access to certain programs that a course might require at all times, and to make the lives of students who might not have a computer at home a lot easier. “We’re not the first school to do this,” Mr. Hickey said. Research has been done and it is the general consensus that giving a student access to school programs 24/7 will increase their chances for better outcomes grade-wise. “It can be done successfully,” Mr. Hickey said. However, the process is a lot harder than you might think. There are many different variables that contribute to this idea. The lifespan of the laptops we have all come to know and love are anywhere from three to five years. Having a student haul the machine to and from school everyday could decrease this lifespan, while increasing the chances for damages. Repairs are also something that the school would have to be prepared to take on; right now there is only one Mr. Hickey, and he is already up to his elbows in problems. If a laptop breaks, are repair attempts made, or do we just buy new ones? All of these questions are slowly being answered, and the hope is that by this spring we will buy enough laptops for an entire class, and by next fall we can test the one-to-one system in Freedom. “All of this is very much up in the air,” Mr. Hickey said. Much progress is being made though, and who knows – next year you could be taking home your very own temporary laptop.