Every student at PHS has the right to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. Now, freshmen and juniors have the right to a Chromebook.All students who  received a Chromebook passed an online test and turned in a responsibility agreement form with parent and student signatures.

Distribution went well, but there were difficulties returning test results and forms along with getting individuals to read their school emails, said PHS Technology Coordinator Jana Branisa.

She expects that not every step of the process will be perfect.

Distribution problems occurred partly because the network capacity was unexpectedly maxed out during the first week of school and because attracting juniors with unscheduled seventh periods to after-school distribution times was hard. The shortage of people in the tech department and the unfamiliarity of the process added to the complications.

“The mantra for this year has been ‘Living in Beta’,” Branisa said. “‘Beta’ is a technical term that means we’re doing things that aren’t quite ready for prime time.”

Now that students have their Chromebooks, Branisa said the next step is to work with the teachers so they can shift their lessons to include them. Only when teachers take time to learn how to use Chromebooks properly can the devices propel learning forward.

“The ball is in the teachers’ court,” Branisa said. “We need to learn a new dance, and that dance is not a solo performance. It’s a dance that the teacher dances with the students and the students have to dance with each other.”

While the Chromebooks are more delicate than Branisa anticipated, she said that only one has broken and two have malfunctioned as of Nov 6.

As of Nov 4, O’Regan’s students have used their Chromebooks every day since receiving them. His Algebra I class works with linear equations, Google Spreadsheets and the Desmos online graphing calculator.

“The one thing that technology gives you is you’re able to see lots of examples pretty fast so you’re able to figure out in general what’s going on,” O’Regan said. “It’s a real time-saver.”

While freshman Maya Guzdar uses her Chromebook in school frequently, she and junior Yuval Wolf said that Chromebooks have not been needed in certain classes at all. Wolf doubts whether the school’s method of adopting Chromebooks will allow them to be used effectively.

“Overall, implementing computers into the curriculum is very important,” Wolf said. “[This process] should be more systematic and specific and not just, ‘All right, we have laptops to take notes on.’”

Spanish teacher Virginia Leskowski’s Chromebook integration is limited by the composition of her classes.

“I don’t have any class where they’re all freshmen or all sophomores or all juniors,” Leskowski said.

If all of her students had Chromebooks, Leskowski could adjust curriculum for different learning needs more easily.

“There would be a considerable more personalized learning and learning from mastery which are two areas that are promoted in the Common Core curriculum,” Leskowski said.

O’Regan is not sure whether the Chromebooks’ benefits outweigh their cost and other problems.

“Because everything is cloud-based, it’s problematic because now you’re dependent upon the cloud to be functioning,” O’Regan said.

Chromebooks should be used as more than just presentation tools, but they will not revolutionize education because they cannot replace observing, thinking and conjecturing skills students practice, O’Regan said.

“The great danger is letting the machine do all the thinking,” O’Regan said.

Attitudes towards Chromebooks among juniors are generally negative, Wolf said.

Guzdar has also heard complaints about how the Chromebooks are cheap and heavy.

“I understand that, but at least we have the Chromebooks,” Guzdar said. “A lot of people just play games on them during class. They don’t really think of them as a gift.”

Wolf, O’Regan, Branisa and Guzdar all acknowledged that increased distraction can be an effect of the Chromebook implementation.

“The juniors who use it the most don’t use it for educational purposes,” Wolf said.

Ways for teachers to maintain classroom focus include using software to monitor screens and having students angle their screens so they can direct their attention at the teacher while leaving their devices on, Branisa said.

Chromebooks cannot provide physical reminders that hard copies can, O’Regan said. Wolf described hand-written work as a cornerstone of his education.

“I personally don’t use [my Chromebook] that often because I find that writing things down is how I learn things,” Wolf said.

Guzdar said that her Chromebook is faster and better-looking than she expected.

“Everyone’s really excited to use their Chromebooks in class– it’s just exciting to take out a computer,” Guzdar said.

A video about usage expectations, which students are supposed to watch before receiving their Chromebooks, encourages students to customize their cases. Decorating Chromebooks was initially seen as strange, Guzdar said.

“Now I’ve noticed a lot more people are thinking of creative things to do with them, so they’re kind of growing on us,” Guzdar said.

Wolf and Guzdar both said that carrying the extra weight is not ideal and Guzdar said her Chromebook case rips the covers of her binders. She hopes that online textbooks will be accessible on Chromebooks so students do not have to carry both to school.