The proposal of a one-to-one technology pilot in the sixth grade at Medea Creek Middle School was approved by the Oak Park Unified School District Board of Education Mar. 20.

In the one-to-one program, each student is provided with a Chromebook to be used for school purposes, which they are allowed to take home and to their classes. In a tentative schedule, OPUSD Director of Technology Enoch Kwok predicted that if the pilot in the 2018-19 school year goes well, the program will be expanded to all secondary schools, including Oak Park High School, in fall 2019.

“Access to up-to-date curriculum and the use of online collaboration tools are increasingly dependent upon every student having their own computing device both at school and at home,” Kwok wrote. “Computing technology is steadily moving from being used as a supplemental material, to being a primary source for accessing the curriculum.”

In a December survey, Kwok and OPUSD Director of Curriculum and Instruction Jay Greenlinger noticed that fewer students and teachers feel that technology is available when they want or need it.

“The reason that [this statistic] is strange is because between the 2017 survey and the 2018 survey, we increased the number of devices on campus,” Greenlinger said. “Our guess is that there’s a higher demand.”

Kwok and Greenlinger believed that the one-to-one program would help to fix the access problem and help prepare students for a world where technology is increasingly present.

“Our district is committed to providing the best educational environment and tools to its studentsas possible to enable them to be able to fulfill their potential as they move on toward colleges and careers that rely on these technologies,” Kwok wrote.

Another argument presented in favor of the program was that computers, unlike textbooks, can always provide students with current information.

“It was not unusual for schools to have the same textbooks for ten or fifteen years,” science department chair Winnie Litten said. “In science, there are changes happening all the time, but there was no way to address those changes in the classroom or get them out to students. With technology, we can look at current information.”

However, while Litten said she thinks that a one-to-one program would allow students to more efficiently access Chromebooks in their classes, English department chair Kathleen Bowman believes that more Chromebooks carts and a bring your own device program could work just as well.

“I enjoy having my Chromebook cart in my classroom, and if a student ever brings in their own devices, I’m more than willing to let them use them,” Bowman said. “I like that the district makes Chromebooks individually available for students and parents who want to purchase them, but I definitely don’t think it should be a mandatory approach.”

However, as explained on the OPUSD website, there are potential flaws in the BYOD system.

According to the OPUSD website “Teachers can only remotely manage Chromebooks in a classroom setting in order to lock down the computer screen to the task at hand and to guarantee test security when completing online assessments. Other computing platforms do not afford teachers the ability to remotely control, monitor, and push out content to Chromebooks.”

Teacher supervision is still possible with a Chromebook purchased by a family, however, that family would have to bring the Chromebook to the district office to have the device enrolled in the district monitoring program.

“What we need to have [students who bring their own device] do is enroll in the district program. That way I can see you on GoGuardian to assure that during a test or a quiz, you’re only on the one website,” Litten said.

Parents will also be encouraged to purchase a Chromebook from the district webstore for their child in order to help save money for the district. In a presentation to the Board of Education, gauging the participation rate in the parent purchase program was listed as one of the fundamental goals of the sixth grade pilot.

“We see it as a partnership between what the district must provide by law, access to all theeducational materials, and the parents, who we’re hoping will come up with some of the money through the purchase program,” Kwok said.

Some are more skeptical about the $420 price tag.

“I think that if students already have a computer, they aren’t going to want to pay for another one,” OPHS junior Chase Bezonsky said.

Litten believes that a demand for technology shows its increasing usefulness in the classroom.

“I can remember, four years ago, nobody wanted an iPad or a Chromebook in their room,” Litten said. “Now, there’s so much more we can do with technology as teachers and as students.”