The Owatonna Public School District announced that they will be offering free T-Mobile 4G LTE wireless hotspots devices to OHS, OMS and ALC students who do not have access to the internet outside of school. This will help students who need access to the internet for their school work.

ISD 761 IT director Mike Halverson said,“This program will help close the digital divide gap for those students that do not have internet access at home.” The purpose is to ensure all students have adequate internet access as more classes have a partially online aspect.

Before getting these devices, it was hard for teachers to assign homework that would require internet usage outside of school as not all students have access to the internet at home. Accounting teacher Matt Olson said, “It is hard for students to be able to work from home and I can make assignments and have the assumption that all students are able to complete the assignments at home with the personal hotspots being available.” All of Mr. Olson’s classes require the use of laptops, so laptops are a big part of his class.

If a device is needed, stop by the OHS media center to check one out. A parent/guardian consent form will need to be filled out and turned in at the media center. Devices may be only checked out one day at a time and returned to the media center no later than 10 a.m. the following day. Devices may not be checked out over the weekend. Any student who breaks or loses a device will be required to pay a replacement fee of $100.

In light of the state-mandated closure, Charter Spectrum is offering free wifi for all K-12 students.