Ed Tech's Chromebook PD Energizes Instruction

Chromebooks Are Here!

Recently, IT began delivering hundreds of Chromebooks and over 70 Chromebook carts to BVSD schools. (See Chromebooks @ BVSD for more details.) This isn’t the first introduction of Chromebooks into the district, but it’s certainly the largest. Many schools are supplementing their existing Chromebooks with these classroom sets, while others may not have had much previous experience with these devices.

Chromebooks integrate well into our existing Google environment. Since moving to Gmail and Google calendar in early 2012, Google Apps have become integral to many classrooms. Students collaboratively edit documents using Google Drive, teachers post YouTube video lectures on their Google Sites, and office staff schedules appointments with Google Calendar. Because Chrome is a Google product, it supports all of these apps and is ideal for running cloud-based software.

The Classroom is Changing

Moving to an online, collaborative environment is one of the fundamental changes happening in education. Students are becoming authors, editors, collaborators, and artists on the world stage, not just in their own classrooms. Of course, merely delivering a classroom set of Chromebooks to a school doesn’t create that change. The real change happens when instruction becomes student-driven. The Chromebook (or any other web-enabled device) is just a tool: the learning is the outcome.

Ed Tech supports teachers as they make this shift to 21st century instruction with a variety of professional development opportunities. Many of these trainings use devices, such as Chromebooks and iPads, but the focus is always on instruction and learning outcomes, not on the tool as a separate entity.

Chromebook PD Opportunities

Here are several upcoming opportunities that are available to any BVSD educator. Check the Ed Tech PD Opportunities website for a complete calendar of events.

• May 3, 2014 — Digital Innovative Learning Day
• August 19, 2014 — District PD: Elementary Literacy Using Chrome
• October 11-12, 2014 — Google for Education Colorado Summit
• Please note that the Google for Education Summit is put on by a professional development company called The EdTechTeam™. Attendees are required to pay a registration fee just as they would for any other conference.
• November 3, 2014 — Chrome Learning Day
• January 14, 2015 — Chrome Learning Day
• April/May 2015 — Digital Innovative Learning Day