Written by Sam Pansa and Tiana Chrans|
In the new Morgan School, not only is there going to be air conditioning and a lack of asbestos, students will also be graced with school funded chromebooks. Chromebooks are similar to any other laptop but run on Google OS, meaning no setup is necessary just a Google account. Work on a Chromebook is mostly in the cloud. The technology at Morgan has problems, but with the new school and the addition of the Chromebooks those problems could be in the past.
When asked about the changes in technology Junior Emily Burr said, “I feel like the chromebooks will get rid of the problems with technology, but I’d be afraid of breaking it.”
The fear of losing or breaking the Chromebooks seems to be a common concern, even among teachers. In a survey done asking the staff of Morgan if they had any concerns, the most frequent question to pop up was, “What happens if a kid breaks, loses or forgets their chromebook?”
Out of forty six responses to the survey, about sixty percent of people said that they were very excited about the new technology being introduced to the new Morgan School.
Head of technology Frank Rossi spoke about the new laptops “It is still being proposed about policies. Nothing is set in stone. We’re going to have loaner devices in places; we’re looking at other schools and districts, and they have systems set up where students pay for repairs, insurance, and those loaners are available for students, whether it is a broken or lost situation. Funding would also not be on students or families. That is the plan right now. This is the district’s initiative, and the last thing we want to do is have a great idea and say now it’s going to cost you something. Obviously depending on the reason why replacement has taken place there is going to be some sort of responsibility to the students, much like what we do now for textbooks. We’re still looking at if cases will be provided, but we haven’t really finalized any decisions yet.”
The new Morgan School holds many promises of improvement and technology seems to be the biggest and most important change of all.