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Welcome to the first of our posts about Chromebooks at Katherine Warington.  In the run up to October half term we have had two weeks of using Chromebooks in lessons.  

Chromebooks in action:  So what have we used them for in our first couple of weeks? Outlined below are some of the ways in which our team have used them to date: 

Why are we only 2 weeks in? Chromebooks were rolled out to our inaugural Year 7 students as we started at the Katherine Warington site on 30th September (after our initial induction period at the University of Hertfordshire) but some frustrating broadband issues meant we didn’t get to start using them until 14th October. 

Every student: We are very proud of the fact that every single student at Katherine Warington has a Chromebook to use in lessons and at home.  How have we managed this? Firstly, we offer a purchasing deal through Freedom Tech which includes an option for cash outright purchase or to spread the cost over 1, 2 or 3 years.  All these options include insurance that provides a next day device swap at school if there are issues – a real draw for parents. Secondly, for families with financial constraints, we have been able to subsidise the cost of the device or offer long term loans of a device from school.  In addition, a small number of our students already had their own Chromebook device, so all they needed to do was purchase a Google license to use it in school. 

Why Chromebooks? We firmly believe that a Chromebook is a far more productive device for education than a tablet, there is only so much you can do on a touch screen.  Chromebooks are fast to start up, they go from off to being in active use in just 10 seconds, from sleep to active use in just 2 seconds – that opens up huge possibilities for their use in parts of lessons in the classroom. Chromebooks also have a fantastic battery life, 10 hours for the models purchased through our scheme.  Students charge them at home overnight and then they last all day. Compared to the 3-4 hours you get on most laptops that is a huge bonus. They are also cost effective, being competitively priced, and come in a rugged model, which is a definite bonus when they are used by 11 year olds! The Google license that comes with the Chromebooks means students have a free, constantly updated suite of applications, with no additional costs for Windows updates.  The Google OS is inherently secure with minimal risk for viruses and all data is stored in the cloud so students’ work can never be lost. The Google suite of applications also updates automatically all the time so our students are always working on the latest versions. 

A Learning Device. Our message to our teaching staff is a clear one: use the Chromebooks only when you feel they will add value to the learning in your lesson.  We still have exercise books in every lesson, even computing, and value our students’ written work highly. However, what we are fast realising is that opportunities that come with all students having a Chromebook are, quite literally, endless.  The flexibility they provide is a big bonus. Chromebooks can be used for a five minute task, to aid student understanding of a concept, for short regular recall tasks with the whole class, or they can be utilised to support a student who needs more scaffolding for a concept or to provide extra challenge to others be it for a couple of minutes or half the lesson.  

The suite of Google applications provides huge opportunities to facilitate learning and feedback – for example in Google docs we can see how a student has drafted a paragraph: What did they start with? How did they check and amend it? Did they change the structure at all?  Did they add improved adjectives? The Google application suite also opens up opportunities for students to collaborate; groups can work together to create/finesse scripts for performances and create an agreed class view on a matter – all huge life skills in today’s working world.   Then there are of course a wealth of resources students can access via their Chromebooks, both in class and at home. From online textbooks (that are constantly updated and many are interactive) through to an ever increasing array of education apps, not to mention that thing they call the world wide web! 

At this stage it is hard to tell who is enjoying using the Chromebooks more: the staff or the students?  With two weeks of their use under our belt, one thing we can be sure of is that we can do so much with them to enhance our students’ learning, and we look forward to doing even more next term.  As well as using the Chromebooks in lessons we will be running a session for parents on Tuesday 19th November and starting our first Period 7 option on Chromebook confidence and touch typing.   

Mrs Zoë Coomber
Head of Maths & SLT lead for Chromebooks, 
Curriculum & Feedback.

Please Click Here to read Issue 1 of our newsletter.