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Cobb County School District selected Apple in the largest ever one-to-one computer learning initiative Power To Learn
Apple to Supply iBooks for Cobb County One-to-One Computer Learning Initiative
The Cobb County School District has selected Apple as its supplier in the largest ever one-to-one computer learning initiative. The district's program, named "Power To Learn," plans for Apple to provide iBook G4s to every student and teacher in the district, starting with deployment this fall of more than 17,000 iBooks for teachers district-wide and students at four high schools designated as demonstration sites. Pending school board approval, the second and third phases of the program will equip all Cobb County high school and middle school students with iBooks beginning in 2006, resulting in a total deployment of 63,000 iBooks.
You can read their official story at www.cobb.k12.ga.us/news/
Timothy D. Cook, Apple's executive vice president of Worldwide Sales and Operations said:
"We're thrilled to work with Cobb County public schools on this landmark one-to-one initiative. School districts across the country have improved student achievement with the help of Apple's one-to-one solutions, and this ambitious project will give Cobb County students a tremendous academic advantage."
Joseph Redden, superintendent of the Cobb County School District said:
"The Power to Learn program represents a giant step forward for education in Cobb County. Apple's combination of innovative technology, world-class technical support and unparalleled experience in the education market make it an ideal partner."
Designed with education in mind, the iBook G4 is encased in a sleek, durable polycarbonate plastic enclosure and offers superb performance with either a 1.2 GHz or 1.33 GHz PowerPC G4 processor. Providing up to six hours of battery life for all-day use in the classroom, the iBook offers AirPort Extreme 54 Mbps 802.11g wireless networking. Every iBook also comes preloaded with Mac OS(R) X and iLife(R) '05, allowing students and teachers to make the most of digital movies, photos and music in school projects and presentations. The lightweight iBook fits easily in a backpack and its slot-load optical drive has no protruding trays or doors that can break.
Under the contract, Apple will lease the iBooks to the school district at a price of $350 per computer/per year. The laptop computers will come pre-loaded with Microsoft Office, Apple's iLife productivity suite, World Book Encyclopedia, a graphing calculator, as well as other software that represents the most current digital tools used today for teaching, learning, and in the business world. The total cost of the contract will average about $5.9 million per year, or a total of about $23.5 million for the four-year lease, and will be paid for with SPLOST II funds designated for technology improvements. The program approved by the school board represents less than 4 percent of the overall $697 million SPLOST program.
Power To Learn will be evaluated by the University of Georgia's Learning & Performance Support Laboratory to measure its effectiveness. After a comprehensive evaluation, if the program is deemed successful, the district may propose using additional SPLOST technology funds to expand the program to all high school students.
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SPLOST Program: SPLOST stands for Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, a way of funding capital construction for public schools enacted in 1997 by the Georgia State Legislature
Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, iBook and iLife are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
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