MTHS’s Christmas Present: New Computers!

Just a couple weeks ago, the elves from Santa’s workshop started spreading rumors about MTHS’s [early] Christmas present. Yes folks, you heard it: we’re getting presents – new computers, presumably around the first week of December!

Every five years, the government grants schools with new, updated computers right out of their pockets. And we don’t even have to pay a single dime, through a process called “Refresh”. Because of constant advances in computers and technology, the “new” computer has  quickly turned into the gray-haired “last year” computer. For the purpose of keeping school computers up to date, Refresh was established. So, every five years, schools are granted with a new batch of updated computers tied with bows, well, for MTHS at least.

This year will be MTHS’s first Refresh, courtesy of federal money. All of our old, rusty, slow computers will be replaced with newer ones, with more RAM (Random Access Memory), allowing for faster responses. Our current computers have 15” monitors, 512 megabytes of RAM and an older version of Microsoft. The new computers we will be getting will consist of 17” monitors, 2 gigabytes of RAM, Microsoft 2007 and will have a different operating system, Vista or Windows 7.

Because of strict federal regulations regarding computers, the school is not allowed to sell or give away the old computers. Therefore, we will use our old computers for lab dissections and for models for the Computer Science classes. The mouses and other appliances will be kept as spares in storage. Thinking about the new computers makes you wish it was already December, doesn’t it?