SO...what's the latest on the MLTI refresh this spring?
Latest on MLTI: Governor LePage has made his decision and chosen the HP ProBook 4440 laptop running Windows 8 as the vendor product of choice for the continuation of the MLTI program. What does this mean for YHS? Well, the details are still to be worked out, but essentially, the Governor is allowing district local control and local flexibility on choosing an appropriate platform and would be able to choose any of the five proposals awarded through a competitive bidding process. The state would cover the cost up to the amount of the HP proposal. At the high school level, at which districts pay for the devices themselves with the support of state-targeted technology funds, the state will leverage its buying power to get the lowest price possible on any of the solutions.
The five proposals come from three vendors: Hewlett Packard, which also was awarded for a tablet solution; Apple, which proposed both an iPad and a MacBook Air laptop solution; and CTL, with a Windows laptop solution.
But...for YHS, we still as of yet have been able to determine if we will be allowed to participate in this latest refresh cycle, as it is being tied to those high schools that are already participants in the MLTI 1:1 project (we are not). Our district tech committees will be meeting shortly to discuss our options as more details come out from the state. Buying out the current round of 5-year old teacher MacBooks and incurring the cost of upgrading and maintaining them, as well as the current wireless network and hardware, may prove more of a financial burden than buying into a full MLTI 1:1 solution that includes devices, support, and network.
Stay tuned!