Chromebook

[NewChief]

Originally Posted by displacedinMN

Every kid in our school received Chromebooks this year.

It has been a hit or miss thing.

My thoughts.

1. We have Dells. I believe they have an almost glass screen and can break easily. We also have 1500 kids. Many of them have been given almost everything handed to them. pencils, paper, answers, money, lunch, rent-you get the idea.

2. Just a few days after launch-broken screen started to show up. the response is "I don't know how it broke" yea, right. You were stupid. One day, 5 came in because they don't care about others property. They did have to may an insurance fee. But repair time is long.

3. We had to lay down the law about charging the battery and use. they are not issued a loaner. They are not given an extra charger. They are expected to use them in class.

4. Every kid was given a carry bag. They are not allowed to carry them anywhere unless it is in the bag. I did watch a kid drop it out of his bag because he was not smart enough to zip it up. Kharma. The bags had the silicon beads in them, When they were not removed, the bags broke and some beads got into the headphone jack. Yippie, solve another issue.

5. They have great battery life as long as you don;t run a lot of video and streaming music. Kids don't get it. When some get to my 7th, thier book is dead. tough. We do not allow them to charge at school.

6. Chromebooks create a barrier. When they are up, and I am in the front of the room, I have no idea what they are doing. I have to be in the back of the room to monitor them. That is hard when I have a smartboard in the front of the room. I pads are on the desk and you can walk by and see what they are doing from any angle.

7. Free draw is almost impossible on the Chromebook. I teach 8th grade earth science. I like to have kids draw pictures to explain what we are doing. I cannot take them inside the earth, to the moon or sun to show it to them like we can dissect a frog in Life science.

8. Google docs is good. Not perfect. Some things need to be improved to word and spreadsheet.

9. We use schoology as a way to teach. My kids are using it now and are required to hand it in online. That is 180 degrees from what I thought I would do this summer. I was also very grumpy this summer.

10. They are a tool, not the end all of education. There is no replacement for a teacher.

11. I know some teachers that refuse to use them because of these issues. It is their right.

Thanks for the educator perspective! I'm going to pass that along to my tech committee as well. I like to see honest opinions. Far too much of educational contact points are "smoke and mirrors" PR types. They'll tell you how awesome everything is with a given program or implementation, but the reality on the ground is far different.