Chromebooks

The Garfield School District was awarded a matching grant from the Utah State Office of Education for computer adaptive testing.  Approximately $35,000 has been spent on Chrome Brooks for students to use in the classrooms.  A Chrome Book is a light weight easily portable laptop computer made by Samsung with a Google operating system.  A Chrome Book has 6.5 hours of battery life and it only takes seconds for the machine to turn on.  Students will be able to store their documents and assignments using Google Docs.  Students will be able to access their documents where ever an internet connection is available.  Chrome Books allow classrooms to become paperless and enable students to save their personal work for later use such as college.  If a Chrome Book is taken home, when it connects to the internet the location of the computer can be found, so computers will never be lost.  The Garfield School District has purchased 140 Chrome Books specifically for student use.  The District will monitor the success of these Chrome Books and if they are as successful as we anticipate, the District will continue to invest in additional Chrome Books.  You may want to ask your students if they have used the Chrome Books in their classroom.  I would like to thank the students for utilizing the new technology.  I would like to thank the teachers for incorporating a new instructional tool in their classroom and also learning the new technology.  I would like to thank Gerald Talbot, the District Technology Coordinator for applying for the grant and making the new technology available to the students.  If you would like more information about Google Chrome Books, it can be found at:  http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/landing.html

–Superintendent Ben Dalton