Chromebook Complications Causing Conflicting Opinions
Students, staff and faculty have differing feelings on the laptops, due to varied technical issues.
By Sonia Feria
Students, staff and faculty have differing feelings on the laptops, due to varied technical issues.
By Sonia Feria
Due to the pandemic, and the consequent shift to digital learning, San José Unified School District now offers Chromebooks to every student above second grade. However, students recently have found issues with them, creating problems in and out of the classroom.
SJUSD used to provide carts of the laptops to schools for teachers to check out and use.
The pandemic made this chromebook cart model ineffective, because in the 2020-21 school year, 93% of students in the United States began the school year online. This is when the Santa Clara County Board of Education donated $7.1 million dollars to its school districts to provide aid to students that need to purchase devices for school. Classes became virtual and SJUSD schools began teaching online through Webex.
“SCCBOE gave our district 5,000 HP Chromebooks and SJUSD was able to purchase another 5,000 HP Chromebooks,” said technology services coordinator Nicole Ison. “The cost was approximately $285 each.”
Chromebooks provided to students have access to all the primary resources and websites necessary for school, and enable teachers to share more interactive lessons. Collegeboard, the company that runs the Scholastic Aptitude Test, Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test and Advanced Placement tests, is also moving its tests online, making devices with internet access crucial.
“All USB-C Chromebooks have an updated ChromeOS and will work for all tests and assessments including the SAT, AP tests, NWEA and SBAC,” said Ison.
Despite this, students and teachers alike have found many issues with the poor battery life of Chromebooks, the slow loading or the relatively low quality of the hardware itself. Social sciences teacher Lillian Luu has struggled with these problems in her classroom.
“(Chromebooks) tend to be slow, run out of battery, they always need to be plugged in. Some things like attaching a file can sometimes be an issue,” Luu said. “You have to spend time problem solving and waiting for things to load.”
The issues can create major problems for students trying to keep up in class or complete assignments. Alexa Camahort, 10, has found that school is more difficult when using them.
“It takes forever to (load) my assignments, or they actually won't turn in. I’ll do my assignments and then I'll lose them, and I have to redo everything,” said Camahort.
Tanay Bedi, 10, is one of the students who has stopped using his Chromebook and instead brings his own laptop from home, due to his negative experiences with his school computer.
“Sometimes in English, when writing essays, it slowed my writing, I’d have to rewrite a lot, it also slows down the time it takes for me to finish the work. It really frustrates me while I'm doing my work or using it in class,” said Bedi.
Math teacher Cem Yesilyurt has a more positive perspective on Chromebooks. In AP Computer Science, students use them every day and although they deal with long loading times, he still feels it is a great resource for students to have.
“Having computers for every student that they carry around with them is such a big help/ It's logistically a lot easier. (I) know the students are unhappy with them but they do make coding way easier,” said Yesilyurt “Chromebooks are cheaper, have Google on them, with secure services and really good security compared to other things. Chromebooks restrict what apps students can use and at school it can help students stay focused.”
SJUSD used to provide carts of the laptops to schools for teachers to check out and use.
The pandemic made this chromebook cart model ineffective, because in the 2020-21 school year, 93% of students in the United States began the school year online. This is when the Santa Clara County Board of Education donated $7.1 million dollars to its school districts to provide aid to students that need to purchase devices for school. Classes became virtual and SJUSD schools began teaching online through Webex.
“SCCBOE gave our district 5,000 HP Chromebooks and SJUSD was able to purchase another 5,000 HP Chromebooks,” said technology services coordinator Nicole Ison. “The cost was approximately $285 each.”
Chromebooks provided to students have access to all the primary resources and websites necessary for school, and enable teachers to share more interactive lessons. Collegeboard, the company that runs the Scholastic Aptitude Test, Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test and Advanced Placement tests, is also moving its tests online, making devices with internet access crucial.
“All USB-C Chromebooks have an updated ChromeOS and will work for all tests and assessments including the SAT, AP tests, NWEA and SBAC,” said Ison.
Despite this, students and teachers alike have found many issues with the poor battery life of Chromebooks, the slow loading or the relatively low quality of the hardware itself. Social sciences teacher Lillian Luu has struggled with these problems in her classroom.
“(Chromebooks) tend to be slow, run out of battery, they always need to be plugged in. Some things like attaching a file can sometimes be an issue,” Luu said. “You have to spend time problem solving and waiting for things to load.”
The issues can create major problems for students trying to keep up in class or complete assignments. Alexa Camahort, 10, has found that school is more difficult when using them.
“It takes forever to (load) my assignments, or they actually won't turn in. I’ll do my assignments and then I'll lose them, and I have to redo everything,” said Camahort.
Tanay Bedi, 10, is one of the students who has stopped using his Chromebook and instead brings his own laptop from home, due to his negative experiences with his school computer.
“Sometimes in English, when writing essays, it slowed my writing, I’d have to rewrite a lot, it also slows down the time it takes for me to finish the work. It really frustrates me while I'm doing my work or using it in class,” said Bedi.
Math teacher Cem Yesilyurt has a more positive perspective on Chromebooks. In AP Computer Science, students use them every day and although they deal with long loading times, he still feels it is a great resource for students to have.
“Having computers for every student that they carry around with them is such a big help/ It's logistically a lot easier. (I) know the students are unhappy with them but they do make coding way easier,” said Yesilyurt “Chromebooks are cheaper, have Google on them, with secure services and really good security compared to other things. Chromebooks restrict what apps students can use and at school it can help students stay focused.”