Initially, we shared information about this at the end of February but questions have been coming up and I wanted to address any concerns. We have decided to move forward with 1:1 for all grades for next year. Thank you all for your input and questions. We will be updating all grade levels to a Chromebook Plus. We are currently in the process of determining the following:
- Will all/some have access to personal email on the school issued device?
- Will we give students school email addresses?
I know there are many in favor of this and many who have expressed concerns, we have taken all the feedback into consideration to do what is best for the education of students. The main factors in our decision ar:
- A large majority of high schools are moving to one-to-one devices for several reasons:
- Cyber security concerns, we are at an increased risk for cybersecurity attack with BYOD.
- Equity: We want to provide an equitable platform for all students.
- Ease of instruction: Teachers overwhelmingly supported one to one; they do not have to support a variety of platforms, if something is needed on the computer the tech department can push it out with ease. In addition, while we have banned phones in the school many students on Macs are mirroring their phones on the computers accessing various social media platforms and texting when they should be engaged in class.
- Phone Mirroring: While we have banned phones many students are mirroring their phones, texting, and not engaging in education by using their phones on their own devices.
- College Applications: Everything is web based and stored in the cloud/drive, we are working on the email portion and will provide additional information.
If students have their own devices they can use their own devices at home, it is similar to having a work and home computer. All the school information is on the school computer, anything non-school related can be on a personal computer. Please send me any comments or concerns.
ALMA:
We will also be moving to ALMA for our Student Information System. All Registration and scheduling for next year will take place in PowerSchool and we will transition to ALMA on August 1st. We believe ALMA will improve the user experience for all as well as provide the level of security needed to protect data.
