Chester schools launch wireless initiative with Chromebooks |
On Board Online • September 1, 2014
By Merri Rosenberg
Special Correspondent
In school technology, it’s the ultimate upgrade: moving to a wireless world, with personalized devices that enable students to learn about almost anything from almost anywhere. The ideal system would enhance teachers’ ability to customize instruction and communicate with students and parents seamlessly.
One district that has taken a bold step in expanding student access to technology is the 1,000-student Chester school district in Orange County. This fall, students in grades 8-12 will have take-home Chromebooks. Other students in certain grades have access to Chromebooks in classrooms.
Chromebooks – laptops made by a variety of manufacturers that run Google’s Chrome OS as the operating system – cost about $250, noted Edward Spence, the district’s director of instruction and technology and a former IBM staffer. That’s cheap compared to laptops at $400 to $500 or iPads, at about $600.
Giving students access to technology is being viewed as increasingly important, Spence said, as colleges expect students to know how to use Google Docs and other web applications. At a minimum, districts need to have a strategy to have students take online PARCC exams beginning in 2015-16.
The district first distributed Chromebooks to students last school year. Making sure that staff, students and the community embrace the endeavor was as important as selecting the technology, district officials said.
“Right from the beginning, we let [parents] know it was for educational purposes only,” said Superintendent Sean Michel. “When parents could see where the kids were going on the sites, it was very powerful.” Parents have access to their children’s homework assignments and grades through a secure Parent Portal.
Similarly, said Chester Academy principal, Leslie Hyatt, the district provided training to teachers, using a BOCES trainer, recognizing “teachers could make or break this.”
Chester moved to the Chromebooks as part of its overall effort to be a “Smart School,” as highlighted by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Spence worked closely with the district’s tech committee to discuss the devices, and held meetings with teachers as well as parents to explain a new Board of Education policy that governs how the devices can be used.
Students don’t receive their Chromebooks unless their parent has signed off on the board policy.
The district also consulted NYSSBA to be knowledgeable about the legal ramifications of going digital, Michel said. “We wanted to know: ‘Where are the stumbling blocks and land mines?’ One of the things we made sure of is that when students log in to Chromebooks, it goes through the school’s filters.”
Academically, the goal was to use the devices to transform learning. Some teachers were slower to see the merits of devices than others.
“I am not one to embrace technology,” Lisa Edwards, a high school English Language Arts teacher in Chester, said in an email message. “I was very nervous about the Chromebook.”
Despite an initial hiccup in which Edwards inadvertently sent answers along with an exercise to help her students prepare for a test, the benefits have become readily apparent to Edwards.
The devices make differentiating instruction “very easy,” according to Edwards. “I shared a graphic organizer with my struggling students who needed extra guidance. Kids shared their essays with each other and made comments and peer edited and it was all student-driven … It allows students to take more time on one activity without falling behind – or drawing attention to themselves.”
Every year, Edwards assigns a research paper. “I have to confess I usually dread it – scheduling consecutive days in the library and computer lab is problematic.”
No more. “The Chromebooks have completely changed the way I teach the research paper and it makes it so much easier for myself and my students. One of the best parts – the students are suggesting ways to use the Chromebook’s features to make the research process easier and more efficient.”
Such projects can be more affordable if they reduce reliance on photocopying and textbooks, Michel said. New textbooks average about $125; Chester used the funds from what was budgeted for textbooks to purchase the Chromebooks, with 20 percent of the budget assigned to replacement hardware.
The cost of the first year of this three-year project was $84,250 for the Chromebooks and management software, along with $84,500 for the increased internal data infrastructure needed for the initiative (which was funded through a one-time legislative grant). As Superintendent Michel explained, training and support were done by the district’s in-house technician and professional development director, so separate costs were not as easy to quantify.
For a five-minute video on how Chester is using the Chromebooks, go to http://safeshare.tv/w/ORFzQmnxpM.