Chromebooks Now a Part of Babylon Schools' Future

Babylon School District students are using a brand-new system after a summer of new additions to the school's technology, including the use of Google Chromebooks in the classrooms.

Carole Polney-Marinello, who is currently the district's Coordinator of Assessment Data, Learning, and Technology, presented the changes to the Babylon School Board during a work-study meeting held on Monday at Babylon Junior-Senior High School.

"We bought 100 Chromebooks this summer," Polney-Marinello told the board. "Two carts of 25 Chromebooks are at the Grade School and one cart of 15 is in use at the High School."

Currently, the 25 Grade School Chromebooks are being used by students in grades three through five for exposure to the system while sixth graders are having the use of the laptops integrated into their daily school lessons. The high school's Chromebooks are being similarly used in integration at the seventh and eighth grade levels.

The Chromebooks, a Google Chrome OS-based laptop designed by Samsung, are produced and sold for much cheaper than competitors such as Windows-based PCs or Apple MacBooks, costing around $250 per laptop. The Chrome OS system is web-based, allowing students to use Google's suite of products, such as the Microsoft Office-competitor Google Drive and Gmail, very easily.

The laptops are stored in secured carts, where they can easily be charged using a single plug.

The Chromebooks, Polney-Marinello said, are just the beginning of the planned changes. If successful, the coordinator said she would like to see more throughout the district for use, especially with the need facilitated by the new Common Core Standards which will require online testing of students.

Polney-Marinello and associates from networking company CSDNet said the district is also implementing a web-based login system that would allow students to access their district computer profiles, along with a suite of school software, from any computer – whether they were in the school grounds or at home.

The new system would use desktop virtualization through a web browser, allowing any computer anywhere to access the Windows 7-based servers at the school district.

There was no word on when those new features would become available to students. A demonstration was shown, however, to board and audience members during the meeting.