How Baltimore County’s tablet initiative is different from all the rest

Baltimore County’s schools superintendent is taking the long road to the tablets.
S. Dallas Dance’s technology efforts caught the attention of BuzzFeed, which compares Baltimore County’s efforts to a program in the Los Angeles public school system to give every student an iPad.
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LA’s initiative ultimately failed, which doesn’t appear to bode well for the Baltimore ‘burbs on the surface. But reporter Molly Hensley-Clancy dug in to identify three key differences that could help make Dance’s initiative successful:

• The Long Road. Baltimore County is rolling out the program over five years (2014-2018), while LA crashed and burned in two years. Baltimore County’s program is also highly regimented, with only ten schools getting laptops in the first two years.
• No Bite of Apple. Dance and his team opted for HP instead of iPads. They went with the HP EliteBook Revolve, which retails at $1,299 and up. The HP devices are known to have more durable screens, and include keyboards.
• It’s Bigger Than Tablets. Dance has received a lot of attention for the school system’s emphasis on technology, and “flipped classrooms,” where students take in information at home and use school time to ask questions. So rather than staking everything on tablets, Dance is staking everything on a general approach that integrates technology.