The arrival of chrome books

This week I have been extremely fortunate to begin a pilot of 15 chrome books in my classroom. These coincide with 2 Mac Airs and a top up of laptops that the class previously used. The arrival of chromebooks brings us up to 1:1 devices!

I am in the throes of coming to grips with Hapara (Teacher dashboard). I have the "Interact" function too, which enables me to see what is on the kids chromebook screen; get a screenshot of their screen etc.

Some of the interesting tidbits so far...

• Thinking I'd busted someone on Youtube, trawling for songs.
• they were actually running some music in the background while working on task!
• Actually busting someone just listening to youtube music.
• I had the ability to close their window from my laptop (much to the amusement of the reading group I was working with, who waited with baited breath to see the reaction when they realised I'd had the ability to do it!)
• 3 kids realised they could create their own blogs... before I'd preceded them and set them up properly!
• Empowering the kids by getting them to share their writing documents with each other, then giving each other feedback and feed forward on it.

I've given the kids a bit of sandpit time this week. I've given them the digital tools but left them to their usual classroom program. The kids themselves have experimented with the chrome platform, by creating drawings of designs and diagrams that relate to their literacy tasks. 

Kids have been working on their work at home, sharing it with their families.

I've spotted kids smuggling their excercise books out the door, so they can take them home and experiment with ways they could have done their work on a google platform.

Next steps:

1. Write each child's google drive on an iceblock stick, so that kids can draw one out to send their work to a peer for feedback. This will ensure that they are seeking feedback from peers that they may not neccesarily approach. They will be exposed to a wider range of peoples interpretations and work as well.
2. Create a 'wheel' with the students names on one circle and the various devices on the other. This will ensure an equitable way of kids experiencing all devices when we need to go 1:1, rather than it being a race.
3. More awareness of G.A.F.E. 

Three days in, and I'm wishing my own kids had the same experience!