High Access Environments

The Natrona County School District began implementing high-access technology environments with the construction of Frontier Middle School in the early 2000s.

Frontier was the first NCSD school to go to a one-to-one computing model, in which all students have laptops to use in school and to take home throughout the school year.

The high-access environments have been spreading quickly to other schools throughout the district. When complete, the goal is for all NCSD students and staff to have access to, training on, and integrated use of technology in school environments.

At full implementation, there will be one computer for every four students in kindergarten through third grade; one computer for every two students in fourth and fifth grades; and all sixth- through 12th-grade students will have their own laptop for use.

The district works with Apple to upgrade computers on a four-year cycle, making sure that costs stay down through bulk purchasing and that students and staff continue to have access to up-to-date technology.

The key part of the high-access plan, however, is providing training and relevant use of technology in the classroom.

The Levels of Technology, or LoTi, program is providing ongoing professional developing for teachers to upgrade their skills and to develop the skills to integrate the use of technology into learning in a meaningful way to all students.