Exploring 'One-to-One' with Chromebooks

This year, we have decided to explore what a one-to-one device scenario would look like with Chromebooks.  When I say one-to-one, I am using that terminology very loosely.  Students do not actually have their own device.  However, we are trying to replicate that situation as best as we can.

For the first semester, we have two chromebook carts housed permanently in one room that is being used by the American Dream Post Secondary Prep Humanities classes. This consists of three classes taught by two different team teachers (teams are taught by a history and english teacher). This year, Mr. Ahnert and Ms. Uliasz and Mr. Lukach and Mrs. Corbin are involved. Our thought is that if the teachers and students can both rely on the fact that there will always be a device in the room, both parties might find it more useful to implement the technology.

In our current system, teachers have to plan ahead to sign out a laptop cart in order for students to complete work using technology.  In some cases, if the teacher does not sign out a cart at least a week in advance, they might not get the devices when they absolutely need them.  As a result, particular instruction might not to happen at times due to a scheduling issue. We all know that there are moments in instruction where a teacher could really use technology for five minutes due to the conversation at that moment.  In our current model that is just not possible.  However, with our one-to-one pilot, we hope that these spontaneous moments will be served well.

Setup:

• 2 Chromebook carts housed in one classroom.  These classes have class numbers ranging from 35-45 students
• Students using the device are 10th graders
• Our tech department set up the chromebooks with management software so that we can control certain things with the device.
• I worked with the American Dream team to come up with a plan as to how these devices would be introduced to the students as well as why they even had them in the first place. (It is important to note that the majority of the students have never used a chromebook before as prior to this year, seeing as though we have only been a Mac school).

Introduction:

It was important to the teachers that the chromebook was not the focus of the course, instead they wanted to make sure it was a supplement to help support their learning.  I could not agree more.  Thus, these devices were not introduced to the students until the third day of school.

Before I even spoke to the students, one humanities team had students think about what the advantages and disadvantages would be if students were in a classroom where computers were always at their disposal.  They had to write their responses down in a T-chart. This was a great way of having students process what that setting would look like prior to being introduced to it.

I was blown away when I heard the responses from students as I did not expect to hear some of them.  Below is a picture of the results from the students.

A short presentation was created for the students to understand what our expectations are of them when using the devices.

In this presentation, students were explained

• to use the devices for educational purposes
• only use their issued device for that block
• lock their computer when leaving the room
• close lids when not using device to help with self management
• not to eat or drink when devices are out
• how to know if they need to pick up device when walking into the room
• differences of logging into the chromebook as opposed to a Mac computer

Picture above shows a que for students in letting them know if they are to pick up a chromebook when they walk into class. (teachers will not have students get one if they know for certain students would not use them at all).

Activities:

After the presentation, students logged onto the chromebook to do their own exploration through a Chromebook scavenger hunt. I was able to find a scavenger hunt that was already made, but made some alternations to it to Bedfordize it. (Thanks to Rick Lapi)  Chromebook Scavenger Hunt Google Doc The students individually worked through the scavenger hunt.

Since this document was not something that the teachers were assessing students on, student did not submit their work using Google Classroom.  Instead, they were shown how to organize their digital work in Drive. One or our focuses as teachers for these classes is to make sure that students are learning how to be a good digital learner. The teachers want to eliminate all of those untitled documents.  They also do not want to see any document on the My Drive list meaning that all files have been stored in some folder. Students were walked through the process of creating an American Dream folder to drop the Scavenger Hunt into it.

The next day, students came into class and played a Kahoot! quiz on chromebooks to see what they learned from the day before.  Again, the teachers wanted to make sure that students knew how to use the device that was in front of them so that they can start off the year right.  If you would like to see the quiz that the students took on Kahoot!, we made it public. Just search for Intro to Chromebooks (authored by sheilc).

We look forward to seeing if and how these devices help with student learning.  We have made a Google Form that teachers will fill out every week to help keep track of how often the devices are being used each week and for what purpose.  Just another way of collecting data to look at in the future.

I must say that BHS is very fortunate that we have a group of teachers who are willing to try something new and potentially change the way they have taught the class before.  I can't wait to see where this might bring us.  Only time will tell...

Proud to be a Bulldog