School Board Approves Laptops for Manchester High Students

No longer will local students have to leave technology behind when the head to school. Instead, each Manchester High School student will be issued a laptop.

The purchase was approved by the Manchester Board of Education this week, according to the Hartford Courant.

Teachers and administrators hope the laptops, Google Chromebooks that cost about $270 apiece, will revolutionize the way students are able to work in the classroom and away from it.

Manchester High School Principal Matthew Geary gave a presentation about the benefits of the laptops recently, saying that combined with an updated wireless network, the devices would allow students to access the Internet for research in the classroom, according to a recent Patch article. Outside the classroom, students would be able to access documents stored in the cloud, work collaboratively and communicate with teachers. No longer could homework be forgotten or must group work stop when the class ends.

"Our goal with the Chromebooks is really to revolutionize teaching and learning at the high school," Geary said, noting that the Chromebooks would provide all students access to the Internet for research, class assignments and communicating remotely with teachers. 

"We want this interactive work to be happening every day in classrooms," Geary told the school board. 

The school requires 1,800 of the Chromebooks, which were paid for through an Alliance Grant from the Connecticut State Department of Education in addition to a Nellie Mae Foundation grant, according to the Hartford Courant.