Four years into JC’s plan to modernize the school through Tablet PCs, the administration made the decision to continue to find parts for upperclassmen laptops and look for alternative routes to handle the problems left by the bankruptcy of Gateway. In addition, the incoming freshmen will purchase their own laptops.
Upperclassmen face a less promising future with their laptops. The plan, according to Director of Technology Greg Russell, is to do whatever it takes to keep students’ machines working by increasing the amount of loaners and parts, as well as investigating new avenues to find a “grander solution” to the laptop issue. The specific focus is on how cost effective it is to continue purchasing parts or replacing the old machines.
Help Desk Coordinator Joe Vitucci said that research is being done to find parts, from eBay to local supply houses. However, a conflict arises as businesses fight for parts to fix their Gateways and suppliers charge up to four times the usual cost for the parts.
The current plan is to supply students with faculty members’ laptops that are rarely used when students’ machines are beyond repair. Russell added that attempts are being made to increase the loaner pool, by employing a different brand of laptops if necessary to ensure that each student has a working Tablet PC.
The members of the technology office, according to Vitucci, are “working nights and weekends to get the Tablets back out, doing everything possible to see students supplied with laptops.”
Even though progress is being made in fixing the Tablets, students, such as junior Elisabeth Kearby, believe that the situation has “been handled poorly and nothing is ever taken care of, and we’re still expected to use the computers.”
For the 2009-2010 school year, the freshmen will buy their laptops as oppose to leasing, or borrowing, laptops from the school. They will be able to either buy a Lenovo laptop through DSR Computer Technology Specialists, or buy one of a different brand. The technology fee, famously costing the upperclassmen $600 per year, will be lowered to $95 to pay for the necessary software for the computers.
The decision to allow students to purchase their own laptops “gives students some flexibility” according to Russell. The administration has recommended that incoming students to buy one of the three laptop models offered through DSR. The models, one of which is the current freshmen’s laptop, are very similar, although the processors differ slightly in speed and price.
The decision was made because “Gateway machines are no longer in existence,” said Russell.
Vitucci said that the incoming freshmen laptops are smaller, cheaper, and lighter. “To this day, [the Lenovos] have not had one hinge fail, or one motherboard crash,” said Vitucci.
Technology support, if students purchase a four year warranty through DSR, will not be done on campus. The laptops will instead be shipped out to a tech center to be repaired. However, if students purchase laptops outside of DSR, they could potentially be without machines for long periods of time depending on how quickly their provider could fix the machine.
Even with concerns looming about the availability of parts, the administration has made a concerted effort to pay back students who have had their machines in the technology office for long periods of time. Students whose laptops have been in the technology office and have been without a loaner for over five days are eligible for credit towards their John Carroll Business Office account. Current juniors can get $3.53 per day back, and sophomores can get $3.68 back per day.
According to Help Desk Assistant Jane Fogarty, the reaction to the plan has been “very positive,” and some have been “gracious, saying to keep the money for technology” for school. A decision has not been made about keeping the credit plan for next year.
Some even question the decision to continue the laptop program in light of all of the difficulties that have resulted. Sophomore Bridget Heneghan said, “[The laptops] got a lot of people to come to this school. Depending on the teacher, the laptops are not that useful.”
Regardless of concerns about what will be done with the Tablets in the future, the administration is content to continue in this more modern direction. “As the world is turning, I wonder what smaller, faster, more robust looks like because that’s where we are going to go,” said principal Paul Barker.