By Nicole Mulready

Students and faculty might remember that last year, the Media Center supplied 24 netbooks available for students to check out and use. They were very helpful if you had something you needed to print for a class and there weren’t any open computers in the labs. Frequent visitors to the Media Center this year will have noticed their disappearance. After an interview with Mrs. Pelletier, we now know the reason they’re gone and where they wound up.

According to Mrs. Pelletier, there is far more traffic in the Media Center than you might think. Based on statistics she has assembled, on some days, there are 1,200 visits (which include students , teachers, and counts multiple visits), over 400 “walk-ins” (students not with a class) and 27 classes scheduled for the three labs. In an average month, there are around 950 books checked out from the library by students and faculty. The Media Center staff, namely Mrs. Pelletier and Mrs. Cinquegrana, are responsible for supervising the students in the Media Center, scheduling classes, checking out and maintaining the books, pulling resources for teachers for special projects, and monitoring the use of the 76 computers in the three labs. This is done through a program called Vision that can show a live feed of each computer’s use at any time to make sure students follow the acceptable use policy. Mrs. Pelletier also teaches a class. Last year, the netbooks added 24 more computers to be monitored, including checking them in and out and making sure they were not stolen. Mrs. Pelletier tallied around 240 netbook checkouts each day, which exceeded one per person per period.

After trying several different ways to organize the netbook usage, including getting volunteers to check them in/out and limiting checkout to the first 10 minutes of each period, Mrs. Pelletier decided that it was too difficult for the Media Center staff to manage them successfully. Though she originally fought for the netbooks in the Media Center, as she believes there is a need for more computers, she brought the issue up to the school. At the same time, new curricula for the Physical Education classes require the use of computers for online assessments and projects. So, the decision was made to transfer the use of the netbooks from the Media Center to the Physical Education department.

Mrs. Pelletier says that she is “all for getting more technology into the hands of students,” as she understands the amount of work, and especially the amount of work requiring computers, that each student has. As of this year, there are 76 computers in the three labs, which may or may not be used by a class during any given period, and three new iPads available for student use. These iPads also require monitoring, especially of acceptable terms of use and security. Mrs. Pelletier would like to add around three more of these, and is looking at an app that would allow monitoring similar to that of the Vision program.

A few years ago, there also were around five additional desktop computers against the wall in the Media Center that were open to students even when all the labs were in use. Mrs. Pelletier says these were removed because they were extremely old and outdated and couldn’t download new updates.

As of now, though, if you are one of those students who sprint to the Media Center during a free block to print a paper or research something when all the labs are in use, consider asking a teacher or Mrs. Pelletier if there is a free computer anywhere, or reach the Media Center early to use one in a lab and leave before the class gets there.