Evanston Township High School plans to distribute about 1,000 Chromebook laptops to teachers and freshman students starting next school year.

The new one-to-one digital learning initiative will allow students to virtually collaborate and easily access online resources, said Paula Frohman, director of technology at ETHS.

“It’s supposed to really improve communication between the teachers and students, whether it’s a paper or a project, and allow for greater collaboration among the students,” Frohman said. “The students can get what they need when they need it.”

Each Chromebook will cost around $300, with the cost split between students and the school, said David Chan, technology integration specialist at ETHS. Chan said students will pay a yearly fee for the laptops with the option to purchase them after four years, and financial assistance will be available for low-income students.

Because the Chromebook is relatively easy to support technologically, the school is also looking into a student-run tech support group, adding another benefit of the laptop program for students, Chan said.

“It gives students a sense of empowerment,” he said. “They’re working with each other, for each other. They’re learning new skills, both hard skills like computer repairs, programming classes and certifications and also soft skills, working on their communication.”

Frohman said the school had to upgrade its wireless network to support the influx of new computers and plans to install a wireless access point in every classroom within the next three years. ETHS spent several years preparing teachers for the new program, and 60 teachers have already been using laptop or tablet devices in their classrooms, Frohman said.

Sara Broaders, a Northwestern psychology lecturer, conducted studies about the effect that laptop use in lecture classes has on student grades. She found the students with the best grades on average took pen-and-paper notes while students who used the Internet during class generally had lower grades. Whether these results apply to high school classes depends on how a class is structured, she said.

“There are some classes, though, where it’s perfectly appropriate,” Broaders said.  “So when I teach research methods, for example, we’ll use Google Docs to immediately upload data.  Part of it depends on the class structure, and it is something where the students would have more structured use of the computer versus more free-form use.”

Chan said ETHS research on one-to-one laptop programs points to positive effects for students, and the school plans to continue rolling out the program for successive freshman classes.

“Being able to continue working and continue researching and creating and collaborating outside of the classroom is a huge boon for going one-to-one,” Chan said. “Giving our students, many of whom may not have laptops or computers at home, this option to have that and being able to provide that is a huge driver.”

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