Chromebooks...

This year, my district rolled out Chromebooks in grades 9-11. So far, we have about 650 of the 740 Chromebooks assigned. Students could choose to receive one of the school-issued Chromebooks or bring their own device. 

This is my first experience with handling issues with students having their own devices to carry home. I did not realize the extent that my Tech Assistants and I would be called upon to assist with Chromebook issues. Some are relatively easy to solve, like rejoining our Wi-Fi network. Others are a little more in-depth. We have had several issues of the Chromebooks not powering up, which have been warranty repairs and we have had to contact the company and ship devices for repair. We have also had several devices damaged accidentally. We have had to use our group insurance policy for these repairs. Needless to say, my Tech Assistants and I have learned several new jobs this year. 

In addition, I have learned that I need to be more organized... I created a "Control Form" for the Chromebooks... keeping track of which students have issues, if we give the student a loaner, and if the device is sent out for insurance or warranty repair. I can definitely vouch for the phrase "learn from experience" because I am learning every day what we should have done. :) For example, I learned the hard way that if you deprovision a device when you send it out for repairs that you should re-enroll it and add the correct Wi-Fi access information before giving the device back to the student. Yep, my first three devices repaired and returned to students came back to me during the same class period. There was no WiFi...OOPS!!

Putting more technology in the hands of my students has definitely been a learning experience! I am sure that by this time next year, I will be an "old pro" at handling Chromebooks.