May 1996 — Features
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The School Design Model at Brewster Academy: Technology Serving Teaching & Learning
The Cost
When people visit Brewster from other schools one of their most common questions is -- how much did all this cost? The first task is to define what they mean by "all this" -- building, hardware, software, network, professional development, curriculum?
Focusing specifically on the technology, Brewster spent approximately $900,000 on the network infrastructure for the campus backbone, dormitories, library, administrative buildings and the 9th–;, 10th–; and 11th–;grade programs, yielding almost 1,800 access points.
To implement the School Design Model, Brewster chose to add much needed classroom space as well. The school spent approximately $3.2 million on 42,000 square feet of teaching space, although only part of this cost is directly attributable to the School Design Model program. Brewster's long–;range plan already called for additional classroom space and a new library. Thus, while designed for the model program, the additional spaces represented an existing need previously articulated.
Hardware and software costs for the program amount to approximately $530,000 to date. We expect that figure to grow by another 15–;20% based upon the continued expansion of the program to the 12th grade.
With regards to technology support personnel, the school began the program with a .75 position as technology coordinator to manage introduction of the program. This has now grown to a full–;time technology coordinator/network manager, a part time support person, student computer user group, and a maintenance contract that, in 1995, put a technician onsite for three hours per day. By September of 1996, the school will require a full–;time technician as the program is expanded to the 12th grade. Brewster's experience with the Mac platform has been excellent and is evidence of a recent study by the Gartner Group, which found significantly reduced maintenance costs associated with the Macintosh environment.[2]
Outcomes
What d'es all this infrastructure mean? Well, it can be two kids sitting at a desk in the dormitory, one hel¼ng the other to download a HyperStudio program from the network. It's a lab report posted in a student display case with graphs and spreadsheets in addition to text. The quality of the report is consistent with that required for a poster session at an academic conference, but in reality, the report belongs to a 9th–;grade biology student.
