ML Chromebook program taps into future

Peering into the future is fraught with peril on any front.

But trying to see what's ahead in the world of technology and how it might apply to preparing students for their careers might be the equivalent of predicting eventualities by use of a Ouija Board.

Trevor Meade, Medical Lake School District's head of technology, has tried to peer into the future discussing how new Chromebook tablet-computers have, and will be implemented into learning opportunities.

Students are being asked to prepare themselves for things even they don't know exist. They work on devices supplied in part through a $1 million Department of Defense grant that is currently in the second of a five-year deployment.

"We're not preparing kids for accounting jobs. We know how to do that, we've been doing that for 300 years," Meade said.

What is on the forefront is preparing students to be drone pilots or program a self-driving car. These are jobs that exist now in certain levels, but how one trains to do that is the big question. A huge number of career opportunities students today will engage in have not yet been invented, Meade said.

The workaround is to train them to learn and use the tools and resources that are currently available.

The way technology is advancing now is like never before, Meade said.

"In the beginnings of the printed word with the Gutenberg Press, that technology was a huge leap, but it was still slow," Meade said.

The grant has put some 500 Chromebooks, purchased in bulk at about $230 each, in the hands of students. The effort is STEM-focused, an acronym for subjects dealing with science, technology, engineering and math.

The first year was centered around planning and professional development, getting devices and support tools into the hands of teachers before the students had them.

"The idea is to get teachers comfortable with them," Meade said.

This year came the introduction of the combination tablet/laptop computer to students at the high school, with subsequent years seeing Chromebooks at the middle school and elementary levels.

"(We) deployed a little over 500 Chromebooks," Meade said, 450 in the first day. He singled out the English Department at MLHS for the help, knowing the exercise could never have been done without their assistance.

Having internet-capable computers in the hands of teens can be seen as being full of problems, relative to where they visit on the web. Meade, however, is confident that measures in place on a variety of levels will safeguard the process.

Federal law required school districts to filter and prevent access to certain websites called CIPA Compliance, meaning the Child Internet Protection Act.

What are described as a "loose set of guidelines," helps sift out extreme violence, and pornography and violence are blocked by default.

Meade said they found a web filter that does one better and attaches to the Chromebook itself. "You get the same level of protection at home as you do at school."

No system is perfect, however. "Kids are amazing at find ways around problems, or what they perceive as problems," Meade said.

At a different level, the grant - and use of the Chromebooks - encourages students to explore and learn.

"That's what this grant is really pushing, how to develop that skills set into students that they can be successful in the world," Meade said.

Meade referenced television shows that deal with remodeling which are able - through technology - to illustrate what variations might look like in a project.

"That's a contractor doing that," Meade said, adding that even some of the most seemingly unlikely people must embrace technology to be successful.

None of this would at all be possible without the work of Ann Everett, the district's CTE (Career and Technical Education) and STEM Director/Elementary Assistant Principal.

"We would not nearly be in the position we're in without her ability to write these grants and get these things available for students," Meade said.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].