MacBook Air now in the hands of each Gulf Shores High School student

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Gulf Shores High School was abuzz with excitement Tuesday, Jan. 7, as 900 students logged in to their new MacBook Air computers. In just under two hours, teachers and students had the new technology up, running and ready to roll.

Teachers like Amanda Talantis who teaches Spanish is excited to utilize the new tech to save valuable time in the classroom.

“In garage band I can record myself asking questions in Spanish and in the student’s own time they can prepare their answers, record and send the files back to me. It’s all audio. It will save me a lot of class time because if I do individual interviews with students in Spanish that takes two days of class time. I can knock it out a lot faster this way,” Talantis said.

Students like Kimberly Sharp are looking forward to pursing their passions in a new way.

“I am excited about getting a MacBook because I am a writer. I have the ability to use pages and iBook to type my poems and maybe publish my own book,” said Sharp.

Olivia Callahan said she is looking forward to using the “new technology in art classes and learning graphic design.”

Gulf Shores High School is also a part of a case study with Mosyle Manager on how the application helped roll out 900 brand-new computers in under two hours. Many school districts spend days over the summer setting up large numbers and then many school days issuing out to students.

Freddie Padovan, VP of Education for Mosyle Management explained some of the features of the software.

“In the background, the app is applying an education profile that allows Apple classroom to activate. When the laptop is in the vicinity of the teacher they are seen through the network and the teacher can see the screens and lock them into applications. It promotes digital censorship with students. They know the teacher can see what’s on their screen up to 30 feet from her computer.”

The purchase was made possible through a grant from the Erie Hall Meyer Charitable Fund and funding from the city. Nearly half a million dollars will be invested over the next three years in the program as it’s brought into the middle school as well.

“We have charged these teachers to produce excellent results and to build an excellent product you need excellent tools. MacBook’s are such an opportunity for these young adults to explore curriculums they are interested in and have the whole world at their hands,” said Gulf Shores City School Board President, Kevin Corcoran.

“The community is behind this. To have the Erie Hall Meyer Charitable Fund recognize a need for this is incredible and we hope this will spur other community leaders to step up and helps us in other areas as well,” Corcoran said.