St James, Strtfrd / St Mary, Rdgfld

St James School, Stratford and St Mary School, Ridgefield were two of the first schools to move beyond iPads only - and invested in Nexus7 Android tablets (St James) and Samsung Chromebooks (St Mary).  These choices provided a lot more buying power for the schools and gave them a very different look from the old 'box style' PCs - that cost more, don't look very appealing with all the cables, cords and large footprint - not so good for marketing and appealing to prospective students and families.

Here's a video of St Mary, Ridgefield with the computer lab of Chromebooks just after they had been setup:

Storing the tablet devices was also a challenge in cost and function and one school opted to design and build their own online from Pelican Cases.  The idea here was to have one upstairs and one downstairs at St Rapahel, Bridgeport.  They needed something mobile that could be handled easily and this is what they came up with:

The most recent acquisition to do with the gaining popularity of a tablet called LearnPad, utilized manufactured carts that are very lightweight and easy to move about.  St Catherine of Siena, Trumbull purchased 60 of the LeranPads with 2 carts, have completed their PD for device use and are very pleased with the outcome.  For those of you that have not seen the LearnPad as of yet - they have a very focused and methodical way to compile class lessons and deliver all manner o fcontent easily to students in a way that keeps anyone from 'straggling' - which in turn maximizes the time for instruction.  If you want to know more about this product - please feel free to contact any of the schools that are using them (listed below) or check the LearnPad website or email our account representative Shannon Hempel at shannon.hempel@Learnpad.com  Here's a look at the front and back of the LearnPad carts that St Catherine is using:

Front of the LearnPad cart - which will hold up to 36 tablets

Back of the Learnpad cart with cable management

LearnPad Info from fellow tech coordinators...

St Catherine of Siena School, TrumbullJaime DiBicella - jdebicella@diobptedu.org - 203.375.1947
St Lawrence School, SheltonJennifer Goncalves - jgoncalvessls@gmail.com - 203.929.4422
Our Lady of the Assumption, FairfieldBrittany Meyers - S. Brittany Myers - sbrittanymyers@gmail.com - 203.334.0271

Our LearnPad account representatives...

This is in flux at the moment... check back later after we provide a verdict on this particular product