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School board gets update on Chromebook roll-out in 3rd, 6th and 9th-grades

The Nelson County Schools board of education accepts a $10,000 donation from AT&T Kentucky at Thursday’s school board meeting. The contribution will expand tuition assistance for students pursuing Associates Degrees or exploring a technical field. Additionally, funds will be available to provide stipends and transportation for students with internships at local businesses. From left, board member Jeff Dickerson; board chair Damon Jackey; Hollie Spade, AT&T representative; Amber Gootee, college and career readiness coordinator; board member Diane Berry; Samantha Brady, chamber of commerce president; state Sen. Jimmy Higdon; Superintendent Wes Bradley; and Laura Arnold, director of workforce developement.

 

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018 — The Nelson County Board of Education received an update Thursday on the district’s Chromebook rollout as part of its 1 to 1 computer laptop program.

During each school’s open house, students and parents are learning that Chromebooks will being distributed to every third-grader, sixth-grader and ninth-grader.

Chase Goff, the director of student leadership and learning, discusses the rollout of Chromebooks to the district’s third, sixth and ninth-grade students.

Chase Goff, the director of student leadership and learning, told the board that the open houses are also when students and parents are introduced the the guidelines for the Chromebooks.

Goff said parents had lots of questions about the program and the Chromebook User Guide — available online at the district website — offers details for parents and students regarding their responsibilities.

According to Goff’s presentation, there will be two types of Chromebook user — the day user and the all-time user. The day user will leave their Chromebooks at school and use them when school is in session. The all-time user will take his or her Chromebook home and be responsible for its care and charging the device each night.

“The Chromebooks are going to provide an opportunity for us to really prepare students and connect back to our mission to really inspire students,” he said.

Goff said when his former district introduced Chromebooks to students and teachers, its spurred innovation and collaboration educators hadn’t even dreamed of.

All the students in the district will also have Digital Citizenship Curriculum at their respective schools, which will cover proper use and care of the Chromebooks and being safe online.

The reason the district is giving the devices to three separate grades amounts to cost-effectiveness. The district has committed to the cost of equipping the same three grades each year with Chromebooks, knowing that in three years every student will have one of the devices.

Chromebooks have a life of four to five years. Old ones will be saved and used as loaners. Once all grades are equipped with Chromebooks, additional ones will be purchased to replace older devices.

WHAT IS A CHROMEBOOK? A Chromebook is a laptop or tablet running the Linux-based Chrome OS as its operating system. The devices are primarily used to perform a variety of tasks using the Google Chrome browser, with most applications and data residing in the cloud rather than on the machine itself.

Chromebooks are designed to be used with Google’s educational suite of applications.

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