Why Are Freshman Getting 1:1 Chromebooks?
For the first time ever, Las Lomas has provided each freshman with their own Chromebook. Students are responsible for their device and are required to bring it to school every day fully charged. “Since teachers assign online assignments, I can do them during academy,” said freshman Shreya Sinha.
“I intend to use them for peer editing, when we write essays, and have to produce polished writing. I also will use them for in class research for various units,” said English teacher Lori Gieleghem.
But why did the school deem it necessary to assign individual Chromebooks?
“I understand why it was done, but personally I don’t feel it was necessary because I think students are exposed to too much screen time already,” said Gieleghem. “To much electronic screen time, the data conclusively proves, is making students angrier, depressed, unmotivated, and addicted.”
During an interview with The Page, associate principal Amy Geotina said “The reason we were focused on freshmen is the idea that students would come in, they would basically get used to using a device in class, and they would feel comfortable using those devices in class as they progress through their sophomore, junior, senior year.”
When asked why the school has each freshman take the same Chromebook home instead of having a cart of Chromebooks and each freshman would use, Geotina said, “We’ve had the cart model for several years, where teachers have either a devoted cart to their classroom, or there’s several within a department where teachers could have access to. And that works for that one class, but often times teachers wanted students to be able to use devices outside of class, whatever the assignment might be. They were finding that not all students had access outside of school, in order for all students to have access so they could do those assignments, giving them a device full time gives those students those opportunities.”
The opportunity to bring your own device is not limited to just the freshmen. Las Lomas is participating in a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program. “This is the first full year where we have a wifi network that is able to support it,” said Geotina when asked about the program.
“We talked about it last year and we started trying to get it, but really, moving to a one to one Chromebook with our freshmen, we’re really trying to push the program forward. That’s a district wide initiative, to really move to a BYOD district, where students feel comfortable and we have the ability to support all those devices on campus.”
The purpose of the program is to allow students to access education-related resources. Students of all years can bring their own device to class, as long as it is only used for school-related assignments. “All students receive two wifi accounts, so basically any student can connect their phone to our wifi and a second device,” said Geotina.
The device must have: a seven inch screen, Multimedia creation and editing capabilities, at least 5 hours of battery life, a place to plug in headphones, and the ability to connect to the internet through 5GHz WiFi. The library is working to provide charging stations to students before and after school and during lunch and brunch.
