Chromebooks are one of the most popular school devices used by students to do their work. LOSD students first get their school issued Chromebooks in sixth grade, but this has caused problems for students, especially upperclassmen who still use older devices. Upperclassmen who are still using the old Chromebooks issued to them as long as six years ago, need help with loading and the functionality of their computers.
Senior Gunnar Olsen has been having problems with his Chromebook and said “I’ve had the Chromebooks since like seventh grade. So I just think the main problem with it is that it’s just really old and not super functional anymore.”
Olsen also described the issues with his Chromebook, including “It lags when I’ll be writing my essays, or if I type kind of fast the words type probably five to 10 seconds after I type them. If I sign out of the Chromebook, it takes up to 20 minutes to load me back into the Chromebook.”
Junior Sofie Howard experienced similar issues as Olsen with her Chromebook. “It’s super slow, especially if I’m not on school WiFi. When it comes to timed assignments too it can get stressful spending three to four minutes even just trying to type a sentence.”
Despite this, Howard explained that “there are some people that are facing a lot of the same issues, but the librarians won’t give them a new computer. I think while it can be frustrating, it’s important to remember that we’re very lucky and fortunate to have a computer. I don’t know if we would even have enough Chromebooks to help everyone that had a slow one. There aren’t many school districts that can even provide this kind of technology to their students.” According to Google, which provides the software for all our Chromebooks, our Acer Chromebook Spins can currently cost between 300 and 400 dollars per unit. Buying a new Chromebook for all LOHS students would likely cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
To help students that are struggling with issues regarding chromebooks, the library tech assistant Ms. Rhiannon Arriga explained that there is a system for students to swap out chromebooks that aren’t working, “Chromebooks have a serial number and a type. If it’s a 751 chromebook, it can be replaced with a brand new chromebook. They’re a lot thinner and a little bit bigger, which I’m sure you’ve seen around school. If it’s a 752, those are not the oldest ones, so they just get traded out with another 752.” For chromebooks that are completely broken, the policy does not allow students to get another chromebook without paying for damages done.
For some students, issues have persisted beyond minor classroom headaches. During the AP United States History exam, senior Olive Erdmann’s Chromebook ran into some technical difficulties. “I clicked start and my Chromebook goes black” she explained, “I had studied for months and months before, my AP score meant something to me because I was trying to send it to colleges.” Erdmann had to take her exam two weeks later in a paper-pencil format, a change that she believes affected her score as hand-written essays are known to take longer and are more difficult to edit. Erdmann explained that she had not elected to swap her Chromebook since she felt her Chromebook was fine relative to other students. “My E key doesn’t work but before then I had never had issues. It was always slow to load and slow to connect to WiFi.” Last year four AP Exams relied exclusively on school Chromebooks.
