What technology does your kids’ school provide for them?

[echoesofspring]

Chromebooks through middle school here (2 different districts), I'm not sure what the highschools do. DS mostly uses his PC for homework, which is ok since having the external monitor makes it a lot easier for DH and I too see what he's doing/help him.

As far the programming classes go, there's a lot of browser based environments that mean you don't have to have access to the machine memory/file system the way you would have had to in the past.

[ahisma]

Isn’t this an equity issue? The reason why every kid gets a device here is for equity across the district. I’m sure the kids don’t need MacBooks but they have been giving those out since long before they had a device for each elementary student.


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It's totally an equity issue, IMO. The reality is that when it started, the district couldn't afford devices - there were major public education funding barriers in Michigan. The school also doesn't have librarians, and until this year the high school cafeteria didn't serve food. There is an open campus and most kids went (still go) to restaurants nearby. Food was available for folks with economic need - it was delivered from the nearby middle school. In theory, anyone could order it (and pay if there wasn't an economic barrier), but there was massive stigma attached. So yeah - quite a few equity issues.

[DualvansMommy]

NJ public school system. Pre-covid lower elementary gets chromebooks they cannot take home.

Middle schoolers could take the school issued devices home. High school which is outside of my town but still within my kids school district is a mixed device: MacBooks and windows laptops.

It’s completely equity issue as every year during and since Covid parents get a survey from district asking what kind and how many devices per household have and whether do we want to get school issued device or let our kids BYOB personal devices but will need to be checked by IT tech to make it “school safe device”

We got DS1 gaming PC that he uses to do most of his homework vs his Chromebook laptop cuz of large monitor allows him to look at his complex hw easier.


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[Kindra178]

Chromebooks are a tiny fraction of the cost of a MacBook.


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[KrisM]

Chromebooks are provided for middle and high school. I'm not sure about elementary.

They can not choose to use their own device. There are so many lock downs on the Chromebooks that I would not want my kids bringing their own into the school and having to get all those things installed.

They used to get one in August and turn it in in June but last year they decided to let them keep them for the summer.

I hear they are piloting iPads in a few classes and may work to change to those instead.

DD can not wait to never use the Chromebook again. Lol. Or the school wifi with all that is blocked on it.

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[lizzywednesday]

NJ public school district here; no tech prior to COVID, but now Chromebooks are issued starting in grade 3 (at least) - DD was in 4th during initial phase of safer-at-home/school-at-home & she used my (MacBook) laptop, but full 1:1 device rollout happened ahead of start of school in September 2020, thanks to grant money. No idea what, if any, tech for K-2s.

Students whose families did not already have internet/wifi access were also provided with wifi hotspots, but the District collected those ahead of the start of the 2022-'23 school year.

The only thing that's funky about school devices is that they are all tied to a specific school/grade level, rather than devices tied to individual students through their whole span with the district, so when students are promoted to a different school (from primary elementary K-2 to intermediate elementary 3-5, then from elementary 3-5 to middle school 6-8, and then for high school, 9-12, each school's admin has its own tech office) they turn in the old device in June and are issued a new one from the receiving school.

[bisous]

Chromebooks are a tiny fraction of the cost of a MacBook.


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This is my takeaway from the OP's post!

My kids have chromebooks issued by the high school. This started during COVID actually! So DS1 didn't have any kind of device in high school until picking up a school issued device in 2020. DS2 started high school in 2021 so he's had the same chromebook since that time. It lives at our house.

DS3 and DD use iPads at school and have no devices at home. Though they have maybe 20 minutes of homework on the computer maybe once a week? So they just use one of our devices.

Although we're apple people, I think chromebooks are better for school than iPads but I suppose I could be persuaded otherwise? But I think it is nice to have a keyboard for word processing and all the sites are properly sized etc.

[KrisM]

Chromebooks are provided for middle and high school. I'm not sure about elementary.

They can not choose to use their own device. There are so many lock downs on the Chromebooks that I would not want my kids bringing their own into the school and having to get all those things installed.

They used to get one in August and turn it in in June but last year they decided to let them keep them for the summer.

I hear they are piloting iPads in a few classes and may work to change to those instead.

DD can not wait to never use the Chromebook again. Lol. Or the school wifi with all that is blocked on it.

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So DD now has an ipad instead and she says it's nicer than the Chromebooks - lighter, takes up less room in the backpack, and doesn't set off the Evolv system daily since there is no hinge. She is happy to leave the Chromebook home!