The district purchased new technology for the journalism and business departments. Over winter break, the Dell computers in the print journalism and broadcast journalism classrooms were replaced with iMacs, and the business department was given newer Dells.

The decision was approved at the Board meeting in August. According to the district website, 1,274 new computers were subsequently purchased, along with 150 Macintosh computers. The price for the new technology was $1.3 million.

Broadcast journalism Cindy Swartz said the new technology will be a great benefit for her classes. In addition to being faster, the new computers are able to support HD videos, which the previous computers were incapable of. Also, Swartz wants to use the program Adobe After Effects with her students videos, the same program used to make the movie Avatar that could no be used on the old computers.

“It is 100 times better than what we had before,” Swartz said. “We can do things in half the time. I think it will improve all of my classes. In fact, I think I will finally be able to do more with the new technology.”

Junior broadcast student Jacob Patterson is glad to be able to work with the new technology.

“These computers are a lot faster and allow us to work with better material on our projects,” Patterson said. “I am able to edit my stories without them crashing in the middle of them, and they render a lot quicker.”

Business teacher Mark Chipman said the Dells are also going to benefit his classes.

“The computers won’t lock up as much as they have been,” Chipman said. “The machines are a little more powerful, [with] faster processors and [we are] able to have multiple things open at once.”