GOOGLE Chromebooks in Friendship Classrooms
Friendship Public Charter School introduces the use of Chromebooks/boxes in our schools to optimize the web’s vast educational resources as well as to integrate rich content into lessons, inspire collaboration, and encourage students to share and create their own content with the world. Chromebooks/boxes are simple, affordable, and a way to place technology into the hands of more students and teachers inside the classrooms.
“We’ve worked hard to give our students all the advantages of 21st century learning tools. Friendship’s Interactive Whiteboards, Smartlabs, 3D printers, and now Chromebooks will help ensure our students are ready for college and careers in the global economy.”–Chairman & CEO, Donald L. Hense
We interviewed Friendship Blow Pierce Junior Academy’s Technology Specialist, Abu-Bakr Rashid, to share his thoughts on the responses and reactions from the Chromebooks/boxes in the classrooms…
How are students responding to the Chromebooks/boxes in classrooms?
“Blow Pierce was fortunate to be the first campus introducing chrome-box and books in classrooms. There has been a very exciting response from the students. Chrome-boxes/books are light weight, possess long battery life and also fast startups. Such user friendly technology in classrooms sparks sense of achievement with enthusiasm among students. There has been a lot of passion among students where they apply their classroom learning into lab work. This enhances their cognitive development and quality learning by accessing vast resources over the internet; hence provides more qualitative learning in classrooms. In addition, these chromebox/books also provide opportunity to students to be familiar with the latest technology and also utilize them for their exams purposes.”
How is staff responding to Chrome books/boxes in classrooms?
“There has been tremendous positive feedback from teachers. Teachers found it very useful while lesson planning and sharing resources. According to teachers, having rapid and updated technology in classrooms provides more learning time within classrooms. They also worked as a tool where students and teachers can share resources and their assignments online, within classrooms and being at home. During class, teachers assign different research assignments to students which lead towards quality learning amongst the students. In addition, teachers can manage their time for individual student assessments.”
Why choose chromebooks/boxes over any other computers for learning?
“There are several administrative and quality aspects when compared to other laptops:
Affordability: Chromebooks were found to be more cost efficient than the computers used previously. In addition, there is no additional cost for the purchase of software such as Microsoft office and anti-virus.
Deployment: Deployment of chromebox/books in class rooms is very simple. It takes a maximum of 10 minutes to enroll and update. Previously, each laptop required a complete day to setup and update before use. Whereas now, there is no special maintenance required and chromebox/books can update themselves much quicker.
Usage and Supportability: Chromebox/books are a web based technology laptop, with a boot up time of 8 seconds which allows it to always be ready for use!”
We interviewed Friendship Public Charter School’s Chief Technology Officer, Damon Metz, on how Chromebooks/boxes can contribute to student’s success…
“The Chromebook and Google Docs programs were birthed to provide a solution to many obstacles our students are currently facing and will face in the future. All of our schools plan to implement digital lesson plans through Compass Learning and Study Island. We’re implementing a one-to-one program for our 7th grade students across the entire District of Columbia. A part of this program allows for every 7th grader to have full access to a chromebook for an entire day.
Students will be able to utilize the chromebooks to collaborate with the teachers, access programs using compass learning, collaborate with other students as well as be taught project-based learning; with this type of active and engaged learning, students are inspired to obtain a deeper knowledge of the subjects they’re studying. Many of our teachers use academic software to leverage pedagogy. The students will be able to perform online research and store their own content such as class notes and papers with the new chromebooks/boxes. For the 2014-2015 academic school year, Friendship Public Charter School plans to conduct student assessment online using chromebooks.
We are excited about this new initiative and hope it leads to a successful one-to-one program for all of our students.” – Damon Metz, Chief Technology Officer
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