Gazette News Report
XENIA – Students in fifth through eighth grades at St. Brigid School are using Chromebooks to enhance their learning.
Having enough Chromebooks for each student to carry to each class creates a learning environment that is not tied to textbooks and handouts. Students will be able to learn from a multitude of websites under the supervision of teachers and access filters. When each child has a Chromebook to use, a teacher can assign an interactive lesson appropriate to one group of students, while the teacher works with others who need help on another skill.
Many textbooks are now available only online. St. Brigid students will be well prepared for area high schools that have introduced 1:1 Chromebooks for their students in the past two years. Both Carroll and Chaminade-Julienne high school have instituted 1:1 Chromebook programs. Alter High School introduced 1:1 Netbooks in 2011.
Chromebooks are a new type of computer designed to help students get things done faster and easier. They run Chrome OS, an operating system that has multiple layers of security, cloud storage, and the most popular Google products built-in. Chromebooks come with apps for everyday tasks, and there are thousands more from the Chrome Web Store. The Chromebooks are instant on and have an eight hour battery life, making them ideal for classroom use.
St. Brigid will no longer be buying and installing software as thousands of apps are free, and they stay up to date automatically. Chromebooks come with Google Drive, an online file storage service, so students can save and access their files safely online and won’t need to back up files manually.
St. Brigid is an in-cloud school. In-cloud schools utilize Google for Education which provides a school with various programs (Documents, Slides, Presentation, and various apps). Google for Education allows students to collaborate with teachers and other students on various assignments/projects. St. Brigid staff and students can access Google for Education anywhere, anytime and on any device. Students will no longer have to carry around their flash drives so they can continue to work at home.
St. Brigid School is proud of its advancements in educational technology which has rapidly advanced through the years, and is a valuable resource in promoting a solid Catholic education to students, according to a release from the school. Students have access to many devices to complete their assignments and develop their technology skills. In addition to the Chromebooks in the fifth through eighth classrooms, St. Brigid has five iPads in each of the kindergarten through fourth grade classrooms, one iPad mobile cart, Chromebooks in the computer lab, and SMARTboards throughout the school.
Registration for Preschool through 8th grade is still available. For information call 937-372-3222, or e-mail Principal Terry Adkins, at [email protected]. To ask questions about tuition or tuition aid, contact Jan Abel at [email protected].
