Sonoma Valley students in grades 6-12 to get Chromebooks

All students, all grades to be issued a Chromebook|

All students in grades 6 to 12 in the Sonoma Valley Unified School District will be issued a Chromebook laptop to use for academic purposes by the start of the 2017-2018 school year, a purchase of an additional 1700 devices in all.

The devices are part of the Sonoma Valley Unified School District's new technology plan that went live last July and sets ambitious goals for student technology use through the end of the 2018-19 school year.

'By providing students with the same device, we can ensure that every student has the same access to the same applications to complete their assignments,' said Jen Matthews, who oversees the district's education technology efforts.

Both Adele and Altimira middle schools hosted 1:1 Chromebook parent information nights for their graduating eighth graders in April.

The high school students will be able to keep their devices over vacations and summer breaks. The district hopes that this will encourage students to continue their studies and negate some of the effects of "summer learning loss."

If a device is lost, the student will need to pay $210 before another Chromebook is issued unless participating in the SVUSD Chromebook Protection plan. If stolen, a police report is required before another Chromebook will be issued. The $210 replacement cost is very close to the district's actual cost, according to Matthews.

Chromebooks aren't intended to be left at school. The intent is for students to have access to continue their schoolwork outside of the classroom.

If a Chromebook is damaged or not working properly, the student is responsible for turning it into the school's designated Chromebook support specialist, and the student will be issued a loaner. The district's IT department will be able to provide support for all devices, something not possible in a bring-your-own-device environment. The cost of repair to the devices ranges from $17 to the cost of replacement. Students are offered the option of insurance at a cost of $30 a year,and some schools offer covers that can be personalized for $20.

Matthews said that students should be aware of the ramifications of the district owning the devices. 'The district reserves the right to monitor and record all use of district technology, on and off school campus, including but not limited to, access to the Internet, emails or social media,' according to the agreements signed by school families.

The district's broad and ambitious new technology plan goes far beyond the 1:1 device pilot to include specific goals for in-class technology use across all grades.

All middle school and high school grades will be 1:1 at the start of the 2017-2018 school year. The district will then redistribute the existing Chromebook carts to the elementary schools, greatly expanding the number of devices accessible in the lower grade classrooms.

"I remember taking geography in the ninth grade and using colored pencils on blank map printouts," said Tracy Dennis, the district's IT manager. "Our students will have Google Earth at their fingertips where they can see explore our world in 3D. I'm excited to be part of the team bringing these tools to our students."

Carlomagno added that, for her, the most exciting aspect of the new devices is that how they dovetail with and enable concurrent changes in what and how today's students learn.

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