Dexter students sport rubber bracelets as part of technology upgrades

"The dog ate my jump drive," Dexter students may soon be telling their teachers.

Using money from a school bond, the Dexter school district recently upgraded its technology, including replacing old PCs with Macs. And giving students a small rubber bracelet was part of those upgrades.

Students from fifth through 12th grade each received a bracelet that's a two-gigabyte USB flash drive with two primary functions. It's formatted for both Macs and PCs, so students can take files from one computer to another. But more importantly, the drives will log students in to the computers when they plug them in.

“Previously, kids could just get on a computer, and they just did whatever they wanted to do and go wherever they wanted to go. There was no accountability,” said Dexter High School Principal Kit Moran. “We wanted to make sure there was the ability for them to log in…and as part of that, we wanted to figure out how they store information."

“I think it is a very good idea," said Emily VanDusen, 17, a senior at Dexter High. Dexter has always been very innovative in terms of technology.”

However, if students forget their flash drive bracelets at home, it leads to bigger issues.

“You can’t log in, you can’t access your files until you get a new one,” said Dexter High student Gabe Altomare, 17.

Students previously had the option of using a guest pass, but that gave them privileges that weren't meant for students, journalism teacher Rod Satterthwaite said. Now, there is no alternative. If lost, students can replace the drives $7.

As with many changes, the school is still taking a wait-and-see approach to see how the bracelets work out. If the flash drives are successful, school administrators will decide whether to buy new ones for incoming students or reuse the ones from departing students.

Whether the district's budget can continue to support the cost will be a deciding factor in how to proceed.

Either way, Moran remains enthusiastic about the role technology is playing in the classroom.

“The phrase now is: ‘We’re training kids for jobs that don’t exist yet,’” he said.

Ann Dwyer is a freelance writer for AnnArbor.com. Reach the news desk at news@annarbor.com or 734-623-2530.