There are many pros in having students with Chromebooks in the classroom. In my social studies class all assignments are completed digitally. For years I have had students lose their papers and have had to make copies after copies of assignments. I felt like most of my time was spent tracking down student work. With all of the work being assigned through Google Classroom I am no longer tracking down missing work. I have seen an increase in work completion among my students that has saved me a lot of time. Creating research based projects and activities in social studies has become much easier. Before the Chromebooks I would have to sign up for LMC time for my class or laptop availability. Now I can incorporate these types of activities around my schedule. Students have unlimited resources at their fingertips in exploring the ancient civilizations. Students are no longer just completing worksheets, but are creating brochures, digital posters, and multimedia presentations on a topic. Due to the limited resources in the past these typos of activities were done infrequently and were entirely dependent on resource availability.Where I have struggled is in science. Our lessons are all based in the students' workbooks. Now, there is an online digital version of the workbook that would allow students to complete the work on the Chromebook. I have found this great for students, but not teacher friendly. I find it difficult to grade and provide feedback using the online version. It takes me three to four times as long to grade an assignment online than it does with paper and pencil. Due to this time increase I have found myself going back to paper and pencil regularly with assignments. Due to the tight space of our small classrooms I have also found it almost impossible to use the Chromebooks during lab activities. They are in the way and clutter up the lab space and therefore could pose a safety issue. We are sticking to paper and pencil for science labs for now.
The last reason I have had a hard time incorporating the Chromebooks into the science classroom is because of all the modeling that our new curriculum requires. Students are constantly drawing 2D models of phenomena and using those models to explain what is happening. I have not found any program that works that is easy for students to use to draw out a model. Using whiteboards or butcher paper is still the easiest way for us to draw models and display them around the room. I am feeling pressure from my district and administrators to use the Chromebooks as often as possible because of the money that was put into getting them. While I have seen the benefits first hand to having them in the classroom, I do have some challenges in incorporating them daily in science. Do you know of a program that would allow students to sketch out their 2D models digitally? If a school supplies Chromebooks how often do you think teachers are expected to incorporate them into their lessons? Can traditional means of pencil and paper still be used or are we expected to move away from that if our district provides us with a 1:1 device?
