Implementing Chromebooks
For the 2018-2019 school year, Colonia High School implemented Chromebooks; each student in all grade levels received a Chromebook for the year. Freshman through Juniors receive newer Lenovo Chromebooks, while seniors receive older models, since they will be graduating in the coming months.
These Chromebooks are in the curriculum to implement technology into education and school. There was a lot of controversy towards the beginning of the year, regarding the tradition of “pen and paper” work, but the administration says, “that it gives every student an equal and efficient opportunity to get work online.”
More Controversy
With the end of the school year approaching, controversy has rose again, regarding the collection of the Chromebooks so early in June. While some teachers were shaky in using the devices in the beginning of the year, they have grown to enjoy their purpose and load all of the assignments onto them, including onto Google Classroom. This seems to be a major problem across the school with the news of Chromebooks being taken away, with many teachers scrambling to get their teaching plans together for pen and paper.
The administration is collecting Chromebooks starting this week, with the seniors first. For many senior classes, this is hard; assignments are on the Chromebooks. There has been little talk about collecting Chromebooks, therefore it has been hard for teachers to squeeze their plans in, especially with the fact that it is still so early in June.
One goal of bringing the Chromebooks into school is to assist students who do not have computer access at home. Now, with Chromebooks collected and two weeks of school, it is going to be difficult to finish assignments at home and study for finals.
“Pen and Paper work”
Mrs. Jaworski, a Forensics teacher at Colonia is an example of this. Most of her work is solely computer-base assignments with virtual labs and articles on Google Classroom. Part of her final exam is a portfolio throughout the entire semester on Google Sites. With senior Chromebooks being collected today, the portfolio is being cut. In a class full of seniors, it is hard to get students to really want to focus.
Teachers who agree that paper is a standard of teaching, are preparing to move back from the digital world. But, it will be hard for teachers who have all of their assignments online to get back into the pen/paper work.
It is also hard for students who have gotten used to the Chromebooks. Sara Attia, a junior, is one such example. She stated, “Most of my classes use the Chromebooks in some way or form. In Spanish class, almost all of my notes and assignments are completely online. My other classes, like health or pre-calculus, also use Chromebooks heavily. I’m just not sure how we’ll prepare for finals without them.”
Is There Another Solution?
The first solution is to allow underclassmen to remain in possession of their issued Chromebook for the full school year and summer. This would allow them accessibility to complete their summer reading assignment and complete all assignments for the current year. This would also eliminate the following fall roll out of devices which will take time.
Since this first solution doesn’t seem to be an option, it might have given students time to finish all work if Chromebooks were collected June 13th and June 14th which are locker clean out days. While the second floor is cleaning their lockers, the first floor could be turning in their Chromebooks.
