Chromebooks - are they forever?

[Anonymous]

We are new to MCPS and have a child in MS. On the first day of school they got a chromebook and every single thing is done through that. Is it going to be like that in HS as well?

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the 21st century!

[Anonymous]

Not everything will be done on a Chromebook, but yes a lot of things will.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not everything will be done on a Chromebook, but yes a lot of things will.

Even in HS? So they won't really be using their own laptops till college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not everything will be done on a Chromebook, but yes a lot of things will.

Even in HS? So they won't really be using their own laptops till college?

Yes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not everything will be done on a Chromebook, but yes a lot of things will.

Even in HS? So they won't really be using their own laptops till college?

Some schools will allow them to use their own, but often they don’t make it easy to connect to WiFi with a non-MCPS device, and most prefer students use the school Chromebooks because they can restrict and monitor more easily. Even when schools do allow personal laptops for everyday assignments, teachers often require students to use MCPS Chromebooks for tests.

My DD sometimes uses her MacBook Air at home for more complex assignments, but mostly she finds it simpler to use the school Chromebook. She has one of the newer touchscreen ones that flips back on itself to create a tablet.

[Anonymous]

Totally depends on the class. Some classes like math and science do very little on chrome book. My kid bought a laptop of her own as soon as she started hS because the chromebooks did not do the things she needed them to do for the work she wanted to do. She kept the Chromebook and was required to use it for certain standardized texts like Mcap.

Also I think they give you a new model when you move from MS to HS.

[Anonymous]

Yes, since the pandemic it's been like this. Nearly everything is done on screen, some classes, like math, still have paper homework packets (but videos and tests are online) and teachers sometimes ask for notebooks to work out problems or such.

My first graduated and now uses a Macbook Air in college. My second is in high school and has adjusted fine.

[Anonymous]

I remember when my son was in 3rd grade once they announced that MCPS would be able to have Chromebooks for schools. I believe it was around the 2014-15 school year where they would be able to give out Chromebooks. Now, look at the pandemic, and how technology quickly advanced, I guess you can say Chromebooks are going to be there forever, I guess.

[Anonymous]

In my kids schools, one in ES and one in MS, I don't think either got a Chromebook this year.

I think maybe for a year or two after the pandemic they were given Chromebooks to take home.

But after that their elementary school said that they'd keep the Chromebooks at school in that cart. And figured it was the same for middle school because the option to take home a Chromebook was never mentioned.

But a lot of their assignments are assigned and submitted online via Google drive. So they might not need a Chromebook specifically, but it seems that they'd need online access to be able to do their assignments, which includes submitting some video recordings too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I remember when my son was in 3rd grade once they announced that MCPS would be able to have Chromebooks for schools. I believe it was around the 2014-15 school year where they would be able to give out Chromebooks. Now, look at the pandemic, and how technology quickly advanced, I guess you can say Chromebooks are going to be there forever, I guess.

Guess that is one thing mcps forecasted before it happened... amazing they were able to get that right before virtual learning.