Blue Hills to expand 1-to-1 Chromebook initiative
By GuestBy Judy Bass
Blue Hills Regional Technical School in Canton will provide all of its students with Chromebook laptops, by grade, over a three-month period in the fall of 2014, Superintendent James P. Quaglia and Principal Jill M. Rossetti have announced.
Adina Jean of Canton, a rising Blue Hills sophomore, uses her Chromebook in the school’s Drafting/CAD program. (Judy Bass photo)
“By Thanksgiving,” said Quaglia, “all students will have them in their hands.”
The first phase of the school’s 1:1 Chromebook initiative was successfully implemented during the 2013-14 school year, when all freshmen were given Chromebooks.
“We are excited about the possibilities for our students,” said Quaglia. “This sets us apart from school districts that haven’t gone to a 1:1 environment.”
“[What we are doing] is a one-size-fits-all approach that has a lot of capability,” Quaglia noted. “Now, the computer lab is wherever the students are.”
Rossetti cited numerous educational benefits of giving Chromebooks to students, such as promoting student engagement in the learning process, greater ease of analyzing documents and creating presentations, doing research, writing, and facilitating collaboration between students.
“If a teacher pushed out notes [to the class] and you were absent,” said Rossetti, “you could get them from Google Drive.”
In addition, she pointed out that the next generation of important standardized tests such as PARCC (the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers), an exam for students in grades K-12 that measures their preparedness for higher education and the workplace, are computer-based.
Cost was a primary factor in the selection of this device for Blue Hills’ students. Chromebooks also have a long battery life, they boot up quickly, are easy to manage, and have no internal memory, eliminating pitfalls like viruses. Quaglia added that they have “full functionality,” allowing users to do whatever they would do on a desktop.
Noting the importance of supporting the school’s “digital learners,” he said that Chromebooks “are now indispensable tools,” which will shift the model of how students learn away from the traditional “chalk and talk,” featuring the teacher at the blackboard in front of the class, to having the locus of control more in the students’ hands, especially because they will have the same tool as the teacher.
Using Chromebooks will allow students to cultivate good “digital citizenship,” said Rossetti. They will hopefully develop a better understanding of what is appropriate to post online and become more adept at discerning whether information they find on the Internet is reliable.
“Once deployed,” Quaglia said, “Phase 2 is enabling teachers to facilitate effective use [of the Chromebooks] by students.” That might entail having them get together to brainstorm and idea-swap to share best practices and bring each other up to speed, he said.
Transitioning from textbooks to e-books is another technological step forward that’s likely at some point in the future, Quaglia said. “Over time,” he explained, “[students’] backpacks are going to be getting thinner.”
“We’re going to prepare students for the 21st century,” said Rossetti, by having them creating, thinking, and collaborating using Chromebooks.
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