MS Chromebook Survey

By Graeme Campbell At the beginning of this year, all middle school students were provided with a GNS Chromebook that they could use at school and at home in order to improve their classroom learning. The freedom to take the Chromebook home extended the advantages this technology offers to students in their studies.The Chromebook was carefully secured in regard to what students could do on the internet to ensure that academic use was paramount. Our recent survey asked these students about their experiences with the Chromebook program in order to better develop the program in the future.We were pleased to see that the students felt the program was dynamic, engaging, and assisted them to learn better. Some highlights from the survey are:

• 77% of students said that the Chromebook improved their understanding of course material.
• 80% of students said that the Chromebook made it easier to organize their schoolwork.
• 79% of students said that the Chromebook helped to complete schoolwork at home.
• 85% of students said that the Chromebook was a positive overall experience both in class and at home.

One key suggestion that arose from the survey was that students identified they need some additional strategies in ensuring they use their screen time wisely. All teachers will be working in the coming year to provide students with additional strategies to assist and monitor them in their self-management in this area, as well as practicing these strategies, in classes. Furthermore, a focus for Graeme Campbell, the Educational Technologist, will be to assist teachers in expanding the use of these devices to be even more appropriate, engaging and stimulating in creating effective learning experiences that would otherwise be difficult or impossible without this technology. The Chromebook program has had a successful year and, with the data gained from this survey, as well as parent and faculty surveys, ongoing changes and improvements will continue to be made. We gratefully acknowledge the development and growth of this amazing program, which would not have been possible without the support of the Annual Appeal.