BCSD students and parents/guardians will be asked to sign off on a Chromebook
agreement before they will be issued a device. We will have a rollout night for each grade
level that will be required to obtain a Chromebook. During rollout night, we will have the
student and parent/guardian will be asked to go through mini-courses that talk about online
safety, care of the Chromebook and digital citizenship. Most of the questions below will be
addressed in this agreement, but here are some answers to your burning questions.
1. What if a student forgets laptop?
Students will bring the Chromebook to school every day. The BCSD Chromebooks
are being provided to enhance the educational experience at BCSD. If a student
forgets the BCSD Chromebook, he/she will be unable to participate fully in that day’s
activities in the classroom. We do not have enough Chromebooks to loan them out
to students who forget theirs at home. If a student forgets their Chromebook at
home, they will not have it for the day. All work assigned and completed on the
Chromebook is the responsibility of the student.
2.
What if it isn’t charged?
Students will charge the Chromebook nightly and will begin each day with a fully
charged battery.The BCSD Chromebook needs to be fully charged for each day as
there will be limited capability for students to charge it during the school day due to
space and electrical constraints. Students should be careful when plugging in the
power cord. The Chromebook should be charged in a location which is both secure
and safe so no damage will be accidentally done to the Chromebook when it is
charging.
3.
What if a student breaks it?
BCSD will assume the liability of accidental damage to all Chromebooks. Any
damage that is either on purpose or malicious will incur a penalty determined by
BCSD. If the Chromebook is lost or stolen, a replacement fee for the entire $280 will
be assessed to the student.
4.
Is there enough bandwidth?
Ballard Middle School underwent an entire network upgrade in July of 2014 to
prepare for the density of a Chromebook deployment. This summer the Middle
School wireless system will be upgraded to handle the density and fill in the
coverage gaps that currently exist. Ballard Community School District overall
bandwidth will be increased from 50MB to 100MB specifically for this deployment.
5.
Are there enough power outlets?
Please see answer to question #2
6.
Who is responsible for monitoring online activity?
The BCSD chromebooks will be filtered through the district web filter whether they
are at school, or home on a personal network. Like any filter, it is not a perfect
science. Standard classroom management will need to be used to deter any abuse
of online activity. Digital Citizenship will also become a big part of our overall
curriculum. Parents and students will be required to go through this lesson and sign
the agreement described earlier when we have our roll-out celebration night at
Ballard Middle School.
7.
Would the Chromebooks be turned in at the end of each year?
We haven’t finalized this part of the rollout. After visiting with the folks from Council
Bluffs, who were the first in Iowa to roll out Chromebooks in a 1:1 setting, they allow
their students to keep them all year long. We are thinking at this point, that we
would follow that same procedure. We are likely looking at a year four or five
replacement cycle, but we don’t know at this point how they will hold up.
8.
Will the Chromebooks be filtered so as to block at school and home
Per Federal Law regarding children's safety and in accordance with the Federal
Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) enacted in 2000, Ballard Schools will filter
internet access for any and all district devices. Filtering will block pornography and
other harmful content. We plan to use our filtering appliance to filter the devices on
our network, and while they are at home.
Please know that we will do our best efforts to filter the devices from harmful content,
but no filtering appliance is perfect. Students will always attempt to circumvent filters
and at times will succeed. Sites and apps appear by the hundreds daily that aid
students in these efforts. We do our best faith efforts to block these as they come to
our attention, but there will never be a better substitute for close supervision of a
child using an internet connected device.
Advice for parents supervising internet access: http://drphil.com/articles/article/166
Parent’s guide to internet safety: http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/parentguide
More About CIPA - http://www.fcc.gov/guides/childrens-internet-protection-act
Ballard Chromebook deployment night will include required sessions for
parents/guardians and students on internet safety and digital citizenship. Students
that do not have a guardian attend the sessions to sign the agreement will not be
issued a device.
9.
Can I connect an external mouse to the Chromebook?
Yes, the Dell Chromebook 11 has two USB 3.0 ports, HDMI and an SD Media Card
Reader slot through which you can connect external devices. Most USB devices and
memory cards will install easily and automatically when plugged in. This includes:
USB keys
SD memory cards
MemoryStick memory cards
A USB mouse (or a wireless dongle for USB mouse)
A USB keyboard (or a wireless dongle for USB keyboard)
Note: Some keyboards which require software to perform extra functions may not have
full functionality in Google Chrome OS.
External hard disk drives with USB interface
The Chrome Operating System does not have device drivers for other devices such as
printers. In order to use a printer with Google Chrome OS, the printer must be Cloud
Ready which means it can print files from cloud storage.
10.
What if we don’t have WIFI at home
In 2014, the Ballard Community School District conducted a “Clarity” survey to
determine our needs in regards to technology. The survey results indicated the 94% of
our families have internet access at home. We obviously know that a small portion of our
homes do not have internet access. For those families who do not have internet access,
the students can work on their assignments in off-line mode. They still have access to the
documents stored in the cloud that are synchronized to their device. Offline mode can be
enabled in Google Drive.
Families without internet access might also consider visiting the Huxley, or Slater Public
Libraries. Both locations have internet access available to the general public. They
would be excellent locations for students wanting to complete homework online.
11.
Won’t the device overheat if kept in the case?
The Classmate InfoCase that we have chosen for our Chromebooks is specifically
designed for the Dell 11 Chromebook. The vents that allow the device to cool when
in use are on the side of the device. Students should never remove the devices from
their case. When the case is closed, the device is placed in an off mode that
requires little to no power. Because of this, the device will not overheat in the case.