Starting this fall every Salina high school student will be assigned a district-purchased Chromebooks to be used in school and at home. The Chromebooks are electronic computer-like devices that, in conjunction with Google Apps for Education, provide students with easy access to online materials, storage, assignments, websites and learning opportunities in a relatively inexpensive package.

For several years, the district has been searching for an electronic alternative to the heavy textbooks students tote around on their backs all day. As part of this search, the Chromebooks were introduced in several classrooms at Salina’s South and Central high schools in the fall of 2013. With little preparation, the teachers and students in these “pilot” classrooms got very good at using the Chromebooks to create, share and access online educational materials.

What Students Are Saying

“The Chromebooks are very easy to use, and they boot up and shut down very quickly,” said one student in a survey that asked about the Chromebooks used in their classroom.

The teachers and students quickly learned that storing items online also has a distinct advantage – “(We can) access our work wherever we are since it is web based.”
And working with others in and out of school got so much easier – “You can share documents and information, and you can collaborate more instead of just in the class(room),” said another student in the survey.

What started out as a way to lighten the load students carry in their backpacks quickly became a means to move our high schools into the 21st Century. As one student put it, “The Chromebooks are a great way of helping students learn in an efficient manner with minimum cost.”

Next Steps

Parents and guardians will receive a letter and brochure with more information during the summer break. Parent meetings will be offered in July at both high schools before school begins. A Chromebook web page is being created on the district website and will be open soon.