May 3, 2024 the Department of Technology Information (DTI) in the Frederick County Public Schools (FCPS) central office pushed out their decision on restricting personal computers. The school system sent out an announcement saying that going into the 2024-2025 school year, all students will be issued school Chromebooks.
This was to simplify technological issues received by the technology center in school buildings. Additionally, having students use school issued Chromebooks simplifies testing because all of the College Board tests are now going to be digital.
As of November 20, 2024 FCPS has sent out a reminder to all of the schools in the district to inform all staff personal to let students know they have to abide to the Chromebook policy.
These school Chromebooks all are equipped with LanSchool programs, pushed by the DTI. LanSchool is a software that allows for instructors to see what’s on the students screens at any point in the class. This ensures honesty in test taking and makes it so that students can’t cheat.
Across the nation, Chromebooks have been implemented in the classroom for learning. According to the Thomas B.Fordham Institute the use of Chromebooks have been useful in classroom learning rather than having students in the computer lab every week.
Chromebooks have been laying the foundation in developing learning with little distraction. Having Chromebooks allow for the districts to block certain websites that can cause a distraction to a students learning.
When a school adapts to having all of the students using a school issued Chromebook then it allows for a safer and effective learning environment.
One of UHS’s Assistant Principals (AP) Mr. Cory Matheny commented saying, “What we actually need to be able to do is have a secure WiFi in the building. When students are constantly bringing their devices in and logging on, it creates security concerns.”
Matheny sides with DTI’s decision by also mentioning the many different WiFi networks in the school: FCPS Devices for the students, FCPS Admin for the admins, EDU Wireless for instructors, and FCPS Guest for anyone else. The announcement of students having to use school issued devices allow for DTI to throttle back on the guest networks allowing for them to only focus on the devices and admin.
AP Mr. Christopher Berry mentioned that “We always had a Chromebook for every student here in the school.” He stated that all of our Chromebooks were just sitting on a shelf and most of them were not in use.
At Urbana High School (UHS) most students have always brought their own personal computer to school. As DTI pushed this out, it allows for the Chromebooks to be used and not just be sitting on a shelf. This also helps students who don’t have access to their own computer know they will be issued one from the school.
However, Nicholas Shoemaker (Class of 2025) said “I have to worry about someone else’s property as I use the school Chromebook. If I was using my own then I wouldn’t be as stressed if it broke.” Shoemaker argues on behalf of some of our students here at UHS.
Mr. Grant Friedland is a social studies teacher and agrees that students should be able to bring their computers. He mentions that students are comfortable with their own devices and having to abide by the new implementations can cause a change that the student does not like.
This does restrict students from using a device that they are comfortable using. However, students can still use their own devices outside of the school environment to complete any work that they have.
For the time being, the ban on BYOD seems to be prevalent in all Frederick County Public Schools.
Students need to adapt to this new system. It looks like it is here to stay.
