St. Gregory the Great Academy students have new technology in their hands this fall. All eight grade students have been equipped with a Chromebook for the year that they can use at school and home.
Chromebooks are thin, lightweight, and less expensive netbook/notebook computer hybrids that use the Google Chrome operating system. They are ideal for learning and sharing in the classroom: there's nothing complicated to learn, they boot up in seconds and have virus protection built in.
Students will use the Chromebooks for research, homework, and emailing teachers to communicate on assignments. Each student has a Google Drive account on the Academy's domain, which they use to create and share documents with their teachers.
The Chromebooks also allow students to use online versions of textbooks. This year Academy 8th graders will use their first solely online textbook for Social Studies. Moving forward, as each textbook series comes up for refreshment, online versions will be purchased.
The addition of the Chromebooks is part of the Academy's new
Mobile Unit Learning Technology Initiative (MULTI). The aim of education at the Academy is not to prepare students for the next grade or the next year, but for a future that we cannot yet predict. As such, the MULTI aims to equip students with the tools that they will use throughout the remainder of their educational careers and into their professional careers.
In addition to the new Chromebooks, Academy grades preschool through 3 currently have a cluster of iPads for use during appropriate classroom instruction, such as Center Time. As the MULTI program grows, the Academy will extend their one-on-one Chromebook initiative down to 7th grade next year, 6th grade in the following year, and 5th grade in the final year. Grade 4 will also receive an iPad cluster.
In today's digital world, classroom usage of technology to augment student learning, increase engagement, and enhance higher level thinking skills is critical.
St. Gregory the Great Academy is on the forefront of implementing technologies that will deliver a long-term academic advantage to its students.
