Gone are the days when Marianne Gifford had to lug a library’s worth of textbooks in her backpack.
“For students like me, my backpack is my locker,” the Iola High School senior said.
So the recent addition of Chromebooks into the IHS arsenal — each student is assigned with the small laptops, thus replacing many of their textbooks — has been a benefit in more ways than one.
“My shoulders aren’t hurting from a heavy backpack,” Gifford said with a chuckle.
“I like having the Chromebook,” she added. “I find I can do things faster.”
That ancillary benefit aside, the high-schoolers have adapted quickly to the newest tool in their secondary education.
The Chromebook rollout is the latest step in USD 257’s efforts to update its technology program, to give students — and especially taxpayers — the biggest bang for their buck, explained Technology Coordinator Brett Linn.
The Chromebooks, and laptops in general, have revolutionized how assignments are completed, lessons explained and instructors and students communicate outside the classroom, Linn noted.
For example, a geometry student studying 3D conic sections can listen to his instructor, manipulate examples in real time, watch an accompanying video and see resulting equations instantaneously.
“Chromebooks allow students to do more project-based assignments,” which in turn sparks creative thinking, Linn said.
THE implementation at the high school is the next step in a districtwide effort to equip students with today’s instructional technology.
“It really started at the middle school, where all the machines were very antiquated,” Linn said.
A staff survey sent out in 2014 indicated overwhelming support for replacing the old system with a more extensive program, utilizing 1:1 technology implementation. That is, each student would be assigned with a technology device, such as a laptop or tablet. (Other options included replacing the old machines with newer models, or adding technology carts where laptops are assigned to classrooms, but not the students.)
A team of instructors — one from each core subject, plus special ed — visited with Linn and other administrators as they toured other districts to see how technology had been implemented into the classroom.
The committee, in turn, agreed and recommended to Board of Education members to implement a 1:1 Chromebook program for the middle school. (The tours also included staff training so teachers could be taught locally how the devices are used.)
CHROMEBOOKS were favored over other devices, such as iPads, MacBooks, Windows or Android devices, Linn said, because of their lower up-front cost. They’re also designed to use multiple types of software applications and different Windows and Android platforms.
The 1:1 Chromebook program began in earnest in the fall of 2015 at IMS. Its reception prompted committee members to consider expanding the program to the high school.
“We thought it was a especially important for the eighth-graders, who would be going to high school the next year,” Linn said.
A second committee was formed to study the 1:1 technology program for Iola High. As with the middle school, the committee recommended Chromebooks because of ease of use and lower up-front costs.
Additionally, Chromebook labs are now in place at Lincoln Elementary, for the older elementary school students.
Younger students at McKinley and Jefferson Elementary schools, meanwhile, are introduced to classroom technology through iPad tablets.
BECAUSE high-schoolers are older, they are given more responsibility to care for their Chromebooks than are the middle-schoolers.
The high school students are allowed — almost encouraged — to take their devices home so they can be charged and ready to go the next morning.
Each charge lasts about 8 1/2 hours. The Chromebooks also sport a protective case, and are designed to shut down as soon as they’re closed, extending battery life even more.
“They’re really a powerful tool,” Linn said.
Safeguards ensure the Chromebooks are used properly. Filters are in place through a district server to prevent students from accessing improper content. Another program monitors how assignments are completed.
“If a large amount of data is added all at once, it means somebody may have copied information from somebody else,” Linn said. “This allows teachers to monitor their students’ work.”
Each Chromebook — at a cost of about $160 — contains 4 gigabytes of RAM, and 16 GB of internal storage, and “infinite” online storage, Linn explained. A Google licensing program ensures the latest safeguards against viruses and other malware are up to date as well.
“We don’t have to touch them or update them, or anything,” Linn said.
That said, Linn and others in the district are trained and able to do hardware repairs, such as a cracked screen, or circuit replacements in case of spills or other damage.
“The teachers have taken to it quickly,” he said. “I think the fact we had committees with teachers from those core areas to provide input at the start helped.”
Lest the traditionalists worry that books are being phased out altogether, each classroom will continue to carry sets of textbooks in case of outages or Chromebook repairs.
THE Chromebooks aren’t the only upgrade.
A new digital phone system instituted this year replaces the old analog, reducing the USD 257’s monthly phone bill from about $2,000 to $1,200 along the way.
Linn said total costs are up slightly from ages past when textbooks were the norm, “but the teachers have more flexibility, students can learn at their own pace, and it’s a better system.”
Next on the agenda is to upgrade the old iPad tablets for the elementary schools, and the “very outdated” projection systems and smartboards, Linn said.
