Meet the Parents!

One of the most important dates in the 1:1 Chromebook Pilot timeline was September 10, Patton's Back to School Night. It was our chance to "Meet the Parents" and give them a first-hand look at the pilot. The students had been given their Chromebook just the day before, so we were anxious to explain just how the pilot was going.

We scheduled our 1:1 meeting for 30 minutes prior to the start of Back to School Night. We decided to hold the meeting in the team's LGI, two adjoining classrooms opened up by pulling back a dividing wall. We were not sure how many parents would attend, so we were pleasantly surprised when we had to scramble to find more chairs. In the end, we had about 75 of the 120 parents in attendance for the meeting. Also in attendance was Assistant to the Superintendent, Ken Batchelor and Curriculum Coordinator, Dave Listman.

The evening was very well received by parents. After the short presentation, time was left for parent questions, which ranged from clarifications about the contract, when the devices would be coming home to ways in which parents could secure the device on their home network.

All in all, a great night and an important night for the pilot. The next day, over 60% of the signed contracts and technology fees were returned by students. The pilot rolls on.

It's Finally Chromebook Day!

The students (and teachers) had been eagerly awaiting the big day since the start of school. We decided to hand out the Chromebooks through Janice Lear's Social Studies classes on September 9, a little more than a week after school started. It was also a day before our "Back to School" Night when we would have a chance to tell parents more about the pilot (and more on that later!) We talked a lot about the timeline for this pilot in the all-important summer planning meetings and we thought the sooner we get the Chromebooks in the hands of the students, the better.

Janice began each class that day by handing out the Chromebook Contract, which students were to have signed and returned with a $50 technology fee. Parents were made aware of the fee over the summer in a letter they received from Patton principal, Tim Hoffman, informing them of their child's team placement and details about the Chromebook Pilot. Parents were given the choice to opt out of the pilot and have their child placed on a different team - but no one exercised that option!

The process of giving out the Chromebooks could not have gone smoother. We had the devices organized in carts, one cart for each of the day's classes. We had pre-assigned a Chromebook to each student, labeled with his or her name. We called the anxiously-awaiting students to the back of the room where they were given their device and an AmazonBasics 14" Laptop Case. The students were very excited and they applauded as each student's name was called out. Upon receiving their new piece of technology, they turned and faced their classmates, gripping the Chromebook and case, smiling like they had just received an Academy Award!

The students spent the remainder of the class period completing a short activity using the Chromebooks and were busy working together, helping each other with their new tool. At the end of class, students packed up the Chromebook in their new case -- many debating the shoulder strap vs handle carrying technique -- and moved on to their next class!

The Setup

Overall, preparing for the actual distribution of the Chromebooks went very well. Again, the planning  we did made this a very smooth process (see previous post!)

The 150 Dell 11 Chromebooks were delivered over the summer, in plenty of time for us to get them ready for the rollout. District technology, led by network engineer Josh Boughner and technology assistants Ryan Dadalski and Gwen Hicks, made sure that the devices were already setup and enrolled for management as well as added to the school's wireless network.

The Chromebooks were already labeled with district inventory tags. So, the week before the students returned to school we started by assigning

a Chromebook to each student on the team in a Chromebook database (completed nicely in Google Sheets -- we are a GAFE school!) From there, we affixed a removable label on each Chromebook with the student's name on it. The labels (Avery Removable Labels, 1" x 3") are sticking so far, let's see if they stay on all year! And come off at the end of the year when we want them to!

One of the biggest, unintended hurdles was the use of the Dell Mobile Computing Cart 30. We like the cart and have a few in the building already. BUT it takes a little time to install the AC adapters in the cart and configure the wire management. Patton technology teacher knows all about this as he may have single-handedly outfitted all five carts with adapters! This might not be a big deal except that we will be allowing students to take their Chromebook home at the end of the first marking period, meaning we would be disassembling the AC adapters from the cart in juts a few weeks! We realized it would have been better to have smaller, "less permanent" carts, with less setup needed. Plus, since we have students pick up and return the Chromebooks to their Advisory (Homeroom) each day, it would have also been better to have carts that only held maybe 15 devices, which is the number of students in an Advisory class. Right now, students have to double-up with another Advisory to store their Chromebook in these 30-device carts. We're managing, but it could have been better.

With the Chromebooks setup, inventoried, labeled and place in a cart, it's on to the big day -- handing out the Chromebooks!

Planning & Leadership

One of the keys to the early success of the 1:1 Chromebook project was the planning time given to prepare for the pilot. District and building leadership -- particularly Assistant Superintendent Ken Batchelor and principal Tim Hoffman -- gave planning time to the building staff members and an important leadership role in the process. A-Team leader Janice Lear and building technology teacher John Walsh were given time to meet on several occasions over the summer to discuss logistics, timelines and objectives for the pilot. These meetings continued into the early days of the school year and included the rest of the A-Team teachers. These planning days will continue throughout the year -- we now meet after school every other Tuesday with building and district leaders -- and a full-day of planning with the entire team will take place later in October (first of many, I hope) Of all the important things that schools need to think about when undertaking such a project, this is the most important. Give the key people time and the ability to lead. So far, so good.

The Chromebook 1:1 Pilot Begins!

In the spring of 2015 we decided to pilot a 1:1 Chromebook program with one of Patton's 6th grade teams with the goals of increased opportunities for collaboration, communication and creativity,  increased student engagement in a personalized learning environment, increased use of technology to enhance teacher instruction, and improved access to both teacher content and robust internet

resources to foster acquisition of knowledge and skills.

We chose the Chromebook for many reasons.  Over the past two years, we have found that the teachers and students preferred the Chromebook over other devices we have to offer at school based on usage patterns of the different devices and informal polling of classes.  Since our School District uses Google as a platform for communication and workflow, Chromebooks fit seamlessly into our instructional environment.  Our students have gmail accounts and have received instruction on how to effectively use their gmail, Google Docs, Google Drive, and other Google applications as a part of our sixth grade computer course curriculum.

We selected a 6th grade team because it is one of the grades where we have mostly pure teams.  This means that the majority of their classes are taught by the same group of teachers.  This allows us to capture more reliable data regarding the integration and impact of introducing a device to their daily environment at school. Additionally, our sixth graders have a computer course and a digital citizenship course through their special areas offerings to help support our teachers and students to appropriately and effectively use these devices for education and learning.

We will be collecting data on how the Chromebook impacts the learning environment for the students and the instruction provided by the teachers.  We will be collecting data from all stakeholders to make recommendations to the Board to guide our vision for technology integration for the 2016-2017 school year and beyond.

We look forward to telling you more about this pilot in the coming weeks!