The Board of Education voted last April on what device to purchase for the next school year and the Dell Latitudes won in a 5-2 vote.

“I think the school board made the right decision,” Instructional Technology Specialist Marie Henderson said. “These are the devices that the Tech Committee selected and thought would be the best fit. Unlike the Surfaces, we didn’t buy these right after they came out. They’ve been out for awhile now, so we got to read reviews first before buying them.”

Henderson believes there are many improvements from the Surfaces to the new Dells.

“The battery on these devices stays charged for much longer, the keyboard is not detachable, and the stylus isn’t specific to the device so students don’t have to worry so much if they lose it,” Henderson said.

These devices are going to be used for the next four years, so the school board wanted to pick a device that can actually last for that long.

So far, in the week students have had their devices, there have not been any problems reported.

“With 80 kids at a time getting their devices that is going to put a strain on the network and Wi-Fi, so the rollout wasn’t flawless, but as far as devices not working, there haven’t been any issues with that,” Henderson said.

21abrooks@usd489.com