Blog Post #4 - Chromebooks

 At the beginning of the Pandemic, I was teaching second grade as I had for many years.  I was confident in my content knowledge and I was confident in my presentation skills.  My children made huge gains year after year and they had fun doing it!  I was named "Teacher of the Year" by my peers just the year before!  I was a great teacher!  And then Covid hit and everything changed overnight.  Teachers had one week to prepare for months and months of virtual learning.  I was no spring chicken and certainly not a digital native, but what choice did I have?  I had no idea what I was doing, but I dove right in!  The biggest gift that I was given in this week before virtual learning was the gift of Chromebooks to my children!  

The support manual for Google defines Chromebooks as, " a new type of computer designed to help you get things done faster and easier. They run Chrome OS, an operating system that has cloud storage, the best of Google built-in, and multiple layers of security."  Chromebooks weren't new to me.  The children used them in school every day in grades 3-5.  They were 1:1 with them.  But for those of us in K-2, we were given IPads to use in our classrooms and we were not 1:1.  In an article, I read, " 5 Reasons Why Chromebooks in the Classroom Benefits Students", it was stated that, "as of 2019, 85% of schools and school districts across the United States have a Chromebook program in place".    I found numerous reasons why Chromebooks should be used in schools.  The following are among them:

  • They are powered by Google which has become a household name and so the support will be around for the life of the Chromebook.
  • They are easy to use, especially for younger students.  They even have lower case letters on the keyboard so that our youngest children can see exactly what they type.
  • They are durable.  They survived drops and spills in numerous tests.
  • They help to level the playing field between low-income and high-income students.
  • They have long battery life and should last for the duration of the school day.
Not only were the benefits of Chromebooks found, but the benefits of the Google Suite of Education just made virtual learning so much easier.  Google Classroom and Google Meets and Google Documents and Google Drive all came together in the best possible ways.  


Reading through our Model 4 readings again this week, I realized that the R.A.T. Method fits perfectly with my experiences with Chromebooks, Google Suite, and virtual learning.  We certainly replaced what we had been doing and how we had been learning with technology very quickly!  And through it all, we saw the Amplification of how technology had transformed us into more efficient and more effective learners.  
With the Pandemic still going strong we continue to be transformed by the technology around us and continue to grow and learn each and every day.

References

Hughes, J.E. (2019). Replacement, amplification, and transformation: The R.A.T. model.

WordPress. Retrieved September 24, 2021, from https://web.archive.org/web/20190612101737/https://techedges.org/r-a-t-model/

Chromebooks in Education: Everything You Need to Know. (n.d.). Illinois Learning Technology Purchase Program. Retrieved September 26, 2021, from https://iltpp.org/in-the-news/chromebooks-in-education-everything-you-need-to-know

Hughes, J.E. (2019). Replacement, amplification, and transformation: The R.A.T. model.

Kajeet, Inc. (2019, October 18). 5 Reasons Why Chromebooks in the classroom benefits students. Kajeet.Net. https://www.kajeet.net/5-reasons-why-chromebooks-in-the-classroom-benefits-students/

Tracy, P. (2021). What is a chromebook and should you buy one? Laptop Magazine. Published.



Comments

  1. Caitlin TillerSeptember 27, 2021 at 1:07 PM

    Chromebooks really are a great technology source with so many great apps already provided. Last year when many students had the option to go virtual, I was tasked with being the fifth grade virtual teacher for our school. Our students did not have devices at the time. Many of them had to borrow refurbished ones from the district if their parents were not able to purchase them a device. Using the Google Education Suite made things much easier on all of us as we were adapting to a new type of learning. Google Classroom was a life saver as was Google Meets with getting the required amount of "check-in's" completed. Thankfully, now our district is moving towards 1:1, as all of our 3-12 grade students now have Chromebooks!

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