Last month, the Lincoln Board of Education approved the purchase of more than 600 Chromebooks that can function as both a traditional laptop and a tablet for the remote school.
The district is using federal relief dollars to buy the laptops and chargers for students, as well as additional monitors for the remote school’s teachers, which in total adds up to just over $247,000.
The laptops, which have a touchscreen, can fold into a tablet and feature rear- and front-facing cameras. That’s an upgrade from the “clamshell” type that can’t fold both directions and only feature one camera, said Kirk Langer, LPS’s chief technology officer.
While both models share similar processors, the two-in-one laptops will help students in the remote program, especially younger pupils, navigate digital learning, Langer said.
“One of the things that we’re exploring is ways that remote learners might want to show their work,” Langer said. That could include written work that they take pictures of.
Before the pandemic, only students from second to 12th grades were equipped with Chromebooks from the district. High schoolers already use the two-in-one models, with those in second to eighth grades assigned the more traditional Chromebooks.
When LPS went fully remote at the end of last school year, it expanded its Chromebook program to kindergarteners and first graders. LPS gave those students some of its older two-in-one laptops that didn’t have touchscreens.
The district soon learned that having those interactive elements — like a touchscreen — was key from a developmental standpoint to younger students, Langer said, which informed its decision to get the more versatile laptops into the hands of remote school students and kindergartners and first graders attending in-person classes, too.
The remote learning program is open to all K-12 students. Instead of juggling in-person and remote classrooms, teachers in the remote program next fall will be devoted virtual educators. LPS has no plans to extend the remote program beyond the 2021-22 school year.
The district recently extended its deadline for students to enroll in the program to Friday, which can be completed on the district’s website.
Just over 700 students have signed up.
©2021 Lincoln Journal Star, Neb. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
