Pantera Looks to New Tablet PC Program to Curb District Transfers

's sixth graders will likely read, write, and turn in assignments on tablet PCs as early as next year as part of a pilot program for the Pomona Unified School District.
   
The district's director of information technology, David Jaramillo, made the announcement last week during a board meeting at Pantera and said that the pilot project will bring tablet computers into the hands of 32 sixth-graders at the school.

Principal Todd Riffell said the effort is, in part, to keep students in the district.

Riffell said that 30 percent of the school's fifth grade students transfer out to start sixth grade at Chaparral Middle School, in the Walnut Unified School District.

"We need to look at the needs of the students and we need to give them something other than a computer lab," Riffell said.

The district receives funds from the state based on "average daily attendance," and each student transferring out of the district means a cut to general fund revenue that the district receives from the state.

The district has already tested Apple's iPad with one teacher.

"We thought that the iPad is the logical choice and there are lots of districts out there using it," Jaramillo said. 

But there were still improvements and questions to be considered.

"We found there were a few things we could do better," Jaramillo said.

On top of that, Jaramillo said, the district was faced with the dilemma any person buying the latest technology faces: when will the next model come out?

"The rumor is that the new iPad will be released in the April/May timeframe," Jaramillo said, "and we have a lot more homework to do."

Pantera Elementary and have already had upgrades to internet lines, brought in through fiberoptic cables, Jaramillo said, but electrical upgrades could be necessary if the devices chosen do not have a sufficiently long battery life.

"We're ready to go," Jaramillo said, "but we need to evaluate all of the products that are available."

In January, Jaramillo said, a number of other tablets running on platforms like Google's Android became available and make the decision more difficult.

Diamond Bar school board member Andrew Wong said the project is in an effort to find a "cutting-edge way to teach the sixth-graders," and said that the devices "won't be leased and parents won't chip in."

The current generation of iPad costs $499 through Apple's education buying portal — the same price as the consumer portal — and the cost of purchasing the computers would come to over $16,000 for 32 students, though other devices are currently being considered.

Wong said the board will consider a formal proposal by the district's IT staff later this year.