District approves initiative that will place Apple technology in the hands of every student and teacher

Every high school student in the Shawnee Mission School District will receive a MacBook Air to use for his or her high school career beginning next fall.

The Shawnee Mission Board of Education approved up to $20 million to purchase Apple equipment and implement its use at last night’s board meeting.

And high school students won’t be the only ones to receive new technology. Middle school students will each receive an iPad. The technology will be phased in at the elementary level with 10 schools scheduled to receive iPads for each of their students next fall. Twenty-three elementary schools will be given iPad carts for the 2014-15 school year and full implementation will be achieved at those schools by the 2015-16 school year.

“We have been investigating this opportunity for quite some time,” Superintendent Jim Hinson said at the board meeting. “It will help the students adapt to a more diverse learning style, boost motivation, and enhance what the students can do with this technology.”

In March, every teacher in the district will receive a MacBook Air and an iPad so that the district can begin preparing teachers for the opportunities to improve education that this technology will bring.

“This is a vision of where we want to go,” associate superintendent Gillian Chapman said. “We want to improve the technology to prepare the students for where they want to go. This will help them get there.”