The future may have arrived at Medea Creek Middle School.

Oak Park Unified School District has implemented a ‘Take-Home 1-to-1 Chromebook’ program for Medea Creek Middle School’s sixth-graders, with eventual plans to expand this policy to grades 7-12 by the 2019-20 school year.

The devices that will be used must all be the same model: Dell 5190 2-in-1. This model is a Chromebook with a keyboard that can be folded back to be used as a tablet. It also comes with a stylus so that students can write by hand rather than type.

“There’s a lot more flexibility in the future with this particular model,” district Teacher on Special Assignment Ellen Chevalier said.

Chevalier is, as of this year, one of two district TOSAs with a focus on education technology. According to Chevalier, the new program will be beneficial to students and educators alike.

“From a student perspective, it’s going to be much simpler when you don’t have to login and logout,” Chevalier said. “The classroom management will be easier on the teacher end as well, because you’ll come in, you’ll open it, [and] it’ll be ready, instead of having to go to the cart, login, [and] put them away at the end of the period.”

The new policy is in conformity with the “21st Century Four Cs.” The four Cs — Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration and Creativity — are innovative teaching and learning practices at the heart of OPUSD’s instructional program.

“The ‘MCMS sixth-grade 1:1 Take Home Chromebook’ program is the natural next step in the district’s progression of making learning more student centered,” OPUSD Head of Technology Enoch Kwok wrote to the Talon. “The district has been on a multi-year journey toward deploying mobile computing in a 1:1 environment, as described in the District’s most recent Technology Master Plan.”

The District’s ‘Needs Assessment Committee,’ ‘Measure S Advisory Committee,’ and ‘District Technology Committee’ have been discussing the roadmap for how to increase student access to 1-to-1 devices since a 1-to-1 program was successfully piloted with fifth-grade students at Oak Hills Elementary School. Kwok says the main constraint has been financial, a dilemma that has been resolved with the Lease to Own program.

“The Lease-to-Own program is a way that parents can partner with the district to help fund every student getting a modern Chromebook,” Kwok wrote. “The district leverages its access to educational discounted pricing, acquires the Chromebooks (using seed money from Measure S), and parents lease the Chromebooks at a discounted price with the proceeds of the lease going to pay back Measure S funds.”

The Lease-to-Own program offers families several options to own a district-regulated Chromebook outright. Families can make a one-time payment of $300, two annual payments of $150, a two-year lease or $75 up front and $10 a month for the next two years. For this to be sustainable, the program requires about 70 percent parent participation, which has been reached.

According to Chevalier, if the positive response from the community continues, the program will be expanded to grade levels 6-12 by the start of the next school year.

“We are still working out the plan,” Chevalier said. “But essentially if the sixth-grade program is successful then all students will be walking onto campus next school year, 2019, with their own device.”