After a year of online learning, students will be introduced to new technology. This fall, the current HP laptops will be switched out for Chromebooks in hopes of giving them a fresh start, according to school officials.
Klein High has used the same HP laptops for the past couple of years, even allowing students to keep the same computers for two years in a row due to COVID and online learning.
“The main reason that we’re switching to Chromebooks is [because] we’re the next high school due for what we call a ‘refresh’,” Rachel Boyd said. “We’re doing a pilot to see how the Chromebooks will work in high school. Depending on how that goes, it will be how they will make decisions for other schools in the district.”
Compared to the older HP laptops, the Chromebooks are much cheaper, adding to the list of benefits for Klein families. This switch also allows Klein to spend money on additional student resources and academic programs.
“Chromebooks are a lot less expensive than PCs, and we weren’t really using all the features of the PCs,” Boyd said. “By shifting the high schools [to Chromebooks], [the district] can save money and then provide better resources for all the kids in the district.”
The new computers shouldn’t have any effect on how students are learning, Boyd said, but it will affect students who use specific programs that are not available on the Chromebooks.
“As for learning and materials, I really don’t think you guys are going to see a difference,” Boyd said. “We’ll still have specialized computers for specialized programs, but in general, students mainly just use the features of a Chromebook.”
During COVID, students became more familiar with their computers and learned new ways to use them. These skills can be applied to the new Chromebooks as well, Boyd said.
“For our students, I think the accessibility is going to be improved – not so much by the Chromebook, but by the new dashboard,” Boyd said. “I don’t think the computers will have an effect on how the students learn, but I do think last year’s experience is going to do that.”