A grant from The 1Million Project Foundation will provide mobile internet access for approximately 5,000 Dallas ISD high school students.
Students at six high schools will receive a mobile LTE hotspot that can provide Wi-Fi access. The grant aims to provide free home internet access so that students can complete their school work, conduct research and access online instructional resources without limitations.
“I think it’s a force multiplier,” said Jack Kelanic, Dallas ISD chief technology officer. “Through the 2015 bond program, Dallas ISD will provide all new computers for high school students this year. But with the 1Million Project partnership, we’re now able to extend those benefits beyond the campus. Thousands of students can leverage these resources from home, whereby they might not have had that opportunity before.”
The 1Million Project Foundation’s mission is to help 1 million high school students who do not have reliable internet access at home reach their full potential by providing mobile devices with free high-speed internet access. The organization already supports approximately 340,000 high school students in 250 school districts across 35 states, according to their website.
The participating Dallas ISD campuses are South Oak Cliff High School, Lincoln High School, Franklin D. Roosevelt High School, James Madison High School, Wilmer-Hutchins High School and L. G. Pinkston High School.
All selected schools are FARE grant recipients. Every year, Dallas ISD’s Racial Equity Office provides additional funds to several campuses with the purpose of addressing academic and infrastructure needs.
“We are transitioning from textbooks and paper to digital instructional resources,” Kelanic said. “There is so much educational content available and we want our students to benefit from that. I think this will help student achievement.”
The mobile hotspot is completely free for the entire high school career of all the students at these six high schools. Since The 1Million Project is an education program, the service includes the necessary security and content-filtering to protect the students online.
Dallas ISD plans to apply for support at additional high school campuses in the future.
