Arriving at her AP English Language class, Palo Alto High School junior Yuna Jeong puts her MacBook away, before taking out her district-issued Chromebook. As she opens the device, a familiar loading screen appears, forcing her to wait as the teacher moves on.
“I feel like I’m slowed down when I use Chromebooks for class because it takes such a long time to even turn on the device, and even longer to log in to my account,” Jeong said. “If I have to switch back and forth between tabs to reference something, it takes like five seconds to load the tab each time. It might seem like a small time to be complaining about, but in the end, it really adds up, especially when I am trying to keep up in a fast-paced class.”
At Paly, some teachers from the English Department now require students to use district-issued Chromebooks in class, aiming to reduce distractions and academic dishonesty. However, this new policy raises conversations on convenience, speed, and student productivity.
Having a device requirement for certain classes can be inconvenient for some. Suppose a student needs their personal device for one class but must also bring their district-issued Chromebook to another class. In that case, they can find themselves lugging around two laptops, quickly adding weight to backpacks filled with notebooks, folders, and more.
“I have AP Lang on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, which requires school-issued Chromebooks,” Jeong said. “But, I rely heavily on my personal device for the other classes I have that day because it has capabilities for organizing tabs and windows, as well as downloading software which I can’t do on Chromebooks.”
While most of the teachers in the English Department have agreed to start using Chromebooks for assignments and tests, not every teacher has.
“I don’t think every single person in the English Department is enforcing it yet,” said English teacher Alana Williamson. “But, most of us are really interested in it, and my AP Lang team has agreed to do it for sure.”
On personal devices, students can open multiple apps or easily engage in any notifications that arrive. Williamson said having students use Chromebooks can improve their ability to stay on task.
“When you have a Macbook, even if we ask you to put your cell phones away, which is what most teachers are doing at this point, you can still access iMessage,” Williamson said. “So what’s the point then? Why did I take your phone away?”
Additionally, by requiring Chromebook usage, the English Department aims to cut down on plagiarism and academic dishonesty.
“We’ve had a huge rise of plagiarism and AI when people are taking quizzes and writing essays,” Williamson said. “To mitigate that, we’re trying to use Chromebooks because we can put them in lockdown mode.”
Although Chromebook requirements may bring strong student opinions on inconveniences, the new rule gets the approval of many English teachers, who agree that Chromebooks are good for their students’ learning.
“I feel like students are less distracted,” Williamson said. “This gives me a lot of peace of mind because they [students] can’t open anything else which is really nice.”
