October 4, 2018
By Athena Li
This past summer, Lexington High School announced the implementation of Google Chromebook integration for freshman and sophomore students in the 2018-2019 school year. Personal laptops are no longer allowed for the underclassmen during class.
Teachers claim the classroom differences to be positive.
“My teaching style hasn’t changed too much,” Taylor Liljegren, a sophomore and senior English teacher, said. “You really can’t lose a digital copy of something, so we save time in not having to re-pass out things.”
The integrated technology is cited to create opportunities for collaboration and creativity.
“One of the things you can do with kids through the cloud is having them able to collaborate while they’re at home on a particular thing that then has them preparing for class,” Principal Andrew Stephens said. “You never could do that before technology. There are so many different applications of that.”
The ability for teachers to curtail student distraction has had material effects. Because Chromebooks don’t have messaging apps such as iMessage, it is harder for students to use their technology for non-educational purposes. Teachers are now able to restrict phone usage in class because students have the Chromebooks instead.
Potential problems that teachers face revolve around student dependability, including coming into class with the chromebook charged and ready to use. The ability of the school to select the technological platform creates opportunities as well.
“Having a reliable platform that we have the ability to update through the cloud and remotely allows us to be able to target our professional development for the teachers tied to the device and tied to the particular applications on there,” Stephens said. “Then you have a better chance of building a base of capacity for teachers to then start talking about ways to utilize technology at higher and higher levels.”
The overall intended function of the integration of Chromebooks is to promote equity.
“The only required thing was that if you were teaching a freshman or sophomore class, you couldn’t allow them to use their personal device. They have to use the Chromebooks,” Jessica Goodstone, a freshman history teacher, said. “I think it’s awesome that they’re giving students Chromebooks, [and] not allowing them to use personal devices and creating equity across the board.”
Student feedback has been mixed. Some believe the Chromebooks were a downgrade from the years before, in which all students were allowed to bring their personal devices.
“I have basically the same exact computer, an Acer Chromebook, however it is the faster and newer edition,” Madelyn Lucente, a freshman, said. “I like and hope that this will cut back on paper, but I wish we could have used our own.”
Some students feel that the costs were unnecessary and could have been diverted elsewhere.
“It’s fine, I guess. But I wish we could just go to the way it was and supply Chromebooks to the kids that actually need them” Erin Cullinan, a sophomore, said. “This is just unnecessary spending that could have been put to use somewhere else, like air conditioning for the main building.”
Some found issues with the manner in which the Chromebooks were integrated.
“Making it mandatory immediately is a problem for people who bought devices already. Ninth graders don’t really care … because they were informed of the Chromebook situation. … Sophomores had to buy computers for ninth grade already, so that’s a disadvantage for them,” Gideon Tzafriri, a freshman, said.
There have also been concerns about functionality.
“The main problem is the software. Chrome OS doesn’t allow certain things to run, like Word or Powerpoint. It doesn’t allow anything in Windows Office to run. Office has better functionality than Google Suite, and you can’t do that on a Chromebook so it’s a problem when you need to do that in school,” Tzafriri said.
The administration has been notified of these types of concerns.
“We have to consider whether it a convenience or an absolute necessity from a curricular access piece,” Stephens said. “If you make that case, then that’s something where you do look at whether or not we put a dedicated cart into that particular area so that kids can access it during class and possibly after school.”
This year’s Chromebook integration is the first step in a five year plan. As it is the first transition year, Stephens urged patience.
“The flexibility we have right now isn’t the same as what we will have next year. Everybody just needs to be patient with this,” Stephens said.
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