A line of students stand in the empty parking lot behind the gym.  Dozens of cardboard boxes lay on the ground and atop a table beneath a tent. The cold wind sends leaves across the asphalt as the students approach the tent setup along the fence. The first kid in line gives his name and permission slip before receiving his rectangular package. Eager to open the box, he prys apart the cardboard revealing the multi-colored Chrome logo.  

As of this fall, it has been a year since Piedmont high school has distributed chromebooks to students of this year’s sophomore and senior classes for in class use. Now they have finally given chromebooks to all students.

For both students and teachers the chromebooks will enhance people’s learning experiences and enable students to coordinate with each other on projects, use the internet and do homework from anywhere on campus.

Some students believe that it could take awhile for the benefits of chromebooks to be seen in the classroom, while other students believe that they are already visible. Either way teachers and this year’s sophomore and senior classes, could have valuable insight on what the impact of chromebooks may look like in classrooms.

For students that received chromebooks last fall, doing school work has become more convenient.

“It’s a lot easier because it’s nice being able to access the internet at all times” senior Drew Collins said.

Collins said it is effective when teachers involve chromebooks during class time activities as well.

Students also enjoy the fact that for all its applications and capabilities, the chromebook is light to carry and is extremely portable.

Senior Jane Kingston said that when chromebooks were used in class last year, they made group work and certain projects easier to do.

Teachers have begun adapting the use of chromebooks to their lesson plans.

“Chromebooks are involved in around half of the lesson plans I have” said English teacher Shimyun Cotter.

Cotter also said that because every student now has a chromebook, online activities that were not always possible before have now become a reality in the classroom.

To her and other teachers the Chromebooks are a useful tool and offer possibilities that did not previously exist for everyone.

“How would you assign homework if you didn’t know what resources students have at home?” Cotter said.

An important issue that may not always be present in the Piedmont community, but is definitely an issue in other communities.

Cotter said that though the chromebooks are a huge resource to students and teachers, however they can be at times disruptive to during class time and often has to ask students to close their chromebooks or stay on task during work times.

While they can be an issue to class activity at times, Cotter said the chromebooks are more helpful than harmful to lesson plans.

However Cotter said that there still definitely needs to be a balance between technology and teaching.
“Human interaction is still the most important thing to education” said Cotter.