The Lakeland Catholic School District (LCSD) has seen major success since introducing the use of Chromebooks and the G Suite program into their schools.
Director of technology, Clint Elliott, made a presentation to the board of trustees on Wednesday, Jan. 23 to give an update on the improvements LCSD has seen regarding technology over the past four years.
“Student achievement is being positively affected by technology in our district, as long as we follow best practices and assessments based on research,” he said.
LCSD board chair Mary Anne Penner was happy with the results, and said it’s “exciting times” for the district when it comes to technology.
There are just over 1,000 Chromebooks throughout their schools, and every day more than 950 are being used by students.
“Per dollar, they’re used more than any other device on a daily basis in our district, hands down,” exclaimed Elliott.
Over the past six months, teachers have shared over 450,000 internal documents with students through Google Classroom and Google Drives.
“That’s a lot considering we only have 2,600 students, and Kindergarten to Grade 4 doesn’t use technology nearly as much as the higher grades. In fact, I’d say most of this comes from the high school,” Elliott noted.
The cost to maintain the Chromebooks annually is $70,000. Since they eliminate the need to print, the district saves about $40,000.
“We’re basically maintaining a fleet of 1,000 Chromebooks in the district by ourselves.” exclaimed Elliot, adding once you subtract the cost of printing documents, the price tag of using Chromebooks is only $30,000.
“That’s about .008 per cent of our budget, which is not very much money to maintain a fleet of 1,000 Chromebooks. I think we’re getting very good value for the money the district spends on our Chromebooks, like beyond compare.”
Last year, under four per cent of Chromebooks were damaged. Half of those units were repaired for around $60 each, and were put back into the schools to be used this year.
The remaining can be replaced at a cost of $200, if they don’t have to re-purchase the license. If a new license is required, the cost goes up to a maximum of $300.
While Chromebooks don’t take the place of iPads, Elliott noted they cover a lot of what the schools need them to and at a lower cost.
By opting to use G Suite through Google, which is free, Elliott said it saves LCSD $125,000 per month for the services they can access through the program.
“I can see how many files have been created, I can’t see the actual files, I can see how many have been shared, and I can see how many posts teachers are making in Google Classroom,” he explained. “For example, teachers are posting over 50 times a day in Google Classroom with assignments and everything. That tells me that they’re getting use out of it.”
Some programs available through G Suite include Google Classroom, Google Forms, Google Draw, Google Task, and Google Maps.
Overall, Elliott noted the Chromebooks and G Suite combination has been great for LCSD.
“It has delivered very solid results for our district, and I think it will continue to deliver good results.”
