Arapahoe High School has a wireless network (called PODnet) in place throughout our school that allows students to bring their own wireless devices to school and connect to the Internet. (Learn more about why AHS offers wireless.). As a result, we often get asked which laptop or device to purchase. Though we cannot recommend specific brands or models, we would like to share some general thoughts on the topic.

First, the device doesn’t have to be a laptop. Any device that uses 802.11 a/b/g protocols will work, including devices like iPhones, Blackberries, and iPod touches.

Second, users who access our network via PODnet do have a few restrictions. They have to agree to the user agreement, their access is still filtered by our Internet filter, they can’t access our printers or file servers - just the web, and the use of the devices in classrooms is at the discretion of the teacher. One piece of really good news is that – if all goes well – students will be able to access their files on our server via the Internet by September 2008. This means that they will be able to get to their files from anywhere they can access the Internet, including home, the public library, and at school via their own wireless device using PODnet. The only thing students won’t be able to do at school from their personal devices that they can from an LPS devices is print (they can save into their server folder and move to an LPS machine to print).

If you should decide to purchase a laptop for your student, there are many options and features to think about. Each person’s needs are unique, so this is definitely not one-size-fits-all. Most students do not necessarily need a top-of-the-line laptop at this point in their learning. (Two exceptions to this would be if your student is interested in video editing or other high-end applications, or if you have a Senior who is going off to college and you want this to be the computer they take with them, in either case they would need a more robust machine to work effectively.) Most students would be served just fine by a basic laptop running Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux. Most of the laptops that you see advertised will work fine for what students need to do, although we would recommend at least 1 GB of RAM (preferably 2 GB, especially for Windows Vista) – which is one area that the “on sale” laptops sometimes skimp on, but you can get by on less.

You might also consider a relatively new category of laptop sometimes called an Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC). LPS is currently looking at the eeePC from ASUS as one option to try to meet our needs for a low-cost, mobile computing solution. (Again, we’re not necessarily recommending that particular brand or model, just using it as an example.) As an example, the 4GB Surf model is only $350, yet functions very well as a mobile computer solution that uses Linux, Open Source applications, and web-based software. While devices such as this will not meet everyone’s needs, it is a much more affordable option for many folks and does almost everything students need it to do (video editing and using specific commercial software probably won’t work, but there are Open Source and web-based solutions).

We want to reiterate that a laptop is not currently required to attend AHS. But, we do think that it is a very valuable tool for a 21st century student, so we wanted to share some general information that we thought might be helpful. If you should have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact
Karl Fisch, AHS’s Director of Technology, at 303-347-6085 or kfisch@lps.k12.co.us.