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Free Chromebooks for students

Saranac Lake Central School District parents and students leave the Saranac Lake High School Monday night with brand-new Chromebooks. (Enterprise photo — Griffin Kelly)

SARANAC LAKE — Saranac Lake High School Principal Joshua Dann addressed an auditorium full of students and parents, eager to get their hands on their new hardware. He quoted American philosopher and educational reformer John Dewey: “If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.”

The Saranac Lake Central School District handed out free Google Chromebooks to students Monday night.

Every student grades two through 12 will receive a personal Chromebook, but only students from grades six and up can take them home. Chromebooks and iPads are also available for students in kindergarten and first grade during the school day.

This part gets a little technical.

Chromebooks, which were first produced in 2011, are kind of like laptops, but instead of offering a multitude of applications and programs, they mainly serve as devices for internet browsing and Google Drive operations. Google Drive is a program used for uploading text documents, photos, spreadsheets, videos and slideshows. Unlike saving a file to one device, Google Drive is cloud-based, meaning you can open it up and edit it on pretty much any device connected to the internet.

With these new Chromebooks, students essentially don’t have to keep track of multiple folders, binders and notebooks. Everything can be save and edited in one place.

Dann listed off a few benefits of the Chromebooks: They boot up quickly, they aren’t likely to get computer viruses, and they teach responsibility.

Let’s say a student doesn’t have internet access at home. No problem. Whatever notes or homework he or she does on a Chromebook will immediately update to the cloud once the device regains internet access.

Jon Zander, the district’s tech integration specialist, said the school will cover general wear and tear for the Chromebooks.

“If you throw it into the lake just to see how far you can send it, that’s on you,” he said.

If a Chromebook does get damaged, students can trade them in for a loaner until the old one is fixed. At the end of every school year, the school will provide software updates if applicable.

SLCSD Superintendent Diane Fox didn’t have the number for how much the Chromebooks cost, but she said it has been a plan a few years in the making.

“We have been buying for several years,” she said, “so this had been building. We had been buying Chromebook carts in sets of 30 and 10. We’ve had some teachers who did some fundraising. We looked at how many we already had, then had some funds save from last year’s budget and reallocated that money so we can have [one Chromebook for every student.]

Chromebooks seem to make copying notes and acquiring lesson easier, but does it become too easy? Does actual learning lessen with technological advancements?

In a 2014 study from the Association for Psychological Science titled “The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking,” Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer found that students who write out their notes on paper understand lessons better than those who typed their notes. Students with laptops tended to copy notes verbatim while the students taking notes long-hand were better at processing data and rewording it.

While Fox is aware of studies like this, she thinks the Chromebooks are an efficient learning tool.

“A common juxtaposition of pictures is when they talk about learning in the 1900s and all the kids are sitting in rows, copying from the board,” she said, “and then there’s a picture from now, and every child is looking at the board, taking a picture with their phone. That’s how they’re taking notes. That’s the way we live. Even as adults. I make lists on my phone. Our job is to meet students where they are and to carry them forward so they can be successful through college or their careers — give them the skills they need to use the technology that’s available and not be scared of it.”

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