Testing season is upon us and I am beginning to see the emails and documentation that asks me to ensure our labs conform to certain specification for online testing. This tedious operation comes as states continue to look for ways to move away from paper tests and into online testing as an easier method for collecting, grading, and evaluating data. Twenty years ago teachers were telling me in school that I would be taking and giving exams online in the year 2000. Then I heard 2010. Now I am hearing nothing. It may be my old age and to many seasons in a very loud Massey Ferguson 1080 but the reality is we are just about to move past the idea of using computers to online test.
Let me explain. PC's for schools are outrageously expensive. The same PC you buy at Bestbuy will be at least $400 to $500 more for a large school district to buy. When I mention this many people get upset and demand to know why because it seems ridiculous. The reality, like the overly expensive toilet seat on a submarine (If the submarine is hit by an explosion no one wants to die from exploding toilet seat fragments, Therefore it is engineered to break into larger heavier pieces that won't become shrapnel.) isn't so bad when you find out why. We have to pay to ship PC's from China that are made to the district standards so that we can fix them. If we let any Windows machine in the district we wouldn't be able to keep up with all of the differences between the various drivers. Inevitably, we would find that some software works and others don't because we have the wrong drivers installed etc. If we pay extra to make sure the innards of the PC are all the same then we can eliminate the need to troubleshoot the whole driver situation and what works on one PC should work on all of our PC's. Other factors include warranty, engraving against theft, preloaded software, delivery and setup, and in big roll-outs disposal of the trash from all of the shipping boxes. This is why testing is still paper and pencil. Every district will be different in what they use on the PC's which will lead to compatibility issues.
Think of the school room you sat in for 12 years. Could you put all of the students in that room with PC's? Imagine the heat from all of the prepubescent boys and girls after PE crammed together with a PC for each? Air conditioning costs would skyrocket. (As would the demand for air fresheners.) Remember testing must also be done all at the same time on the same day. We don't want anyone getting an advantage by being tested on day two after they have texted each other the answers. This requires a lot of space and a lot of AC!
Districts have been going with 1 to 1 pilots for years in laptop initiatives that had onsite repair and assistance for the students and teachers when their laptops were not working. This is a wonderful idea and I wish every school could do this but it isn't feasible for every student in the US to have a laptop or PC to use in class. So begins the tablet and Chromebook war for the educational environment.
Tablets like the iPad can deliver, create and curate awesome content. Schools who have taken the time to properly train, collaborate and plan for their tablet initiatives have reported amazing results. (Despite some growling by teachers.) Then came the Chromebook. What a PC can do, Chromebook can do and it comes with a keyboard, very low price and no more expensive updates or drivers because it is all cloud based!
What is cloud based? Basically, all of the stuff you think of that your computer can do is being done on a server somewhere else. Not on your laptop or PC at the desk. Remember those custom built Chinese PC's? Don't need them. When Google wants to update they just change things on their server and the next time you access your account you are already updated. Pretty spiffy! this reduces the costs for school districts with robust wireless networks on their hardware outlay.
Notice I said robust wireless network. That is the catch. You have to be able to access the cloud. If I am in a part of the building without a wireless network access point my Chromebook is useless. That is the sticking point for wholesale adoption. If you are wondering why don't we update the networks? We are,. just not as fast as we need to because we are federally funded. If Mr. Obama and the politicos in Washington don't pay to upgrade public school access we have to ask the taxpayer to do it. Not many taxpayers in the local area like paying for something that isn't physical. I can't show you wireless like I can a pencil and paper. This is quite a gotcha since the majority of voters learned everything with pencil and paper. (Remember, senior citizens account for the majority of votes.)
So how does this impact planning? We can't plan for the future. Period. If you are trying to formulate a 5 or ten year plan and stick to it? Pack up and go home. In five years we may be laughing at the idea of using Chromebooks. In ten years we may be doing our computing virtually on special surfaces. We can't predict it. Worse yet state testing planners, administrators and teachers are not as quick to grasp this fluid situation. We aren't going to be buying any new PC's in favor of Chromebooks and iPads. Cheaper and easier to use and maintain. Yet I will have to oversee the purchase of 30 PC's for testing purposes because planners and purchasers couldn't predict the swiftness in adoption of this new tech.
Let me explain. PC's for schools are outrageously expensive. The same PC you buy at Bestbuy will be at least $400 to $500 more for a large school district to buy. When I mention this many people get upset and demand to know why because it seems ridiculous. The reality, like the overly expensive toilet seat on a submarine (If the submarine is hit by an explosion no one wants to die from exploding toilet seat fragments, Therefore it is engineered to break into larger heavier pieces that won't become shrapnel.) isn't so bad when you find out why. We have to pay to ship PC's from China that are made to the district standards so that we can fix them. If we let any Windows machine in the district we wouldn't be able to keep up with all of the differences between the various drivers. Inevitably, we would find that some software works and others don't because we have the wrong drivers installed etc. If we pay extra to make sure the innards of the PC are all the same then we can eliminate the need to troubleshoot the whole driver situation and what works on one PC should work on all of our PC's. Other factors include warranty, engraving against theft, preloaded software, delivery and setup, and in big roll-outs disposal of the trash from all of the shipping boxes. This is why testing is still paper and pencil. Every district will be different in what they use on the PC's which will lead to compatibility issues.
Think of the school room you sat in for 12 years. Could you put all of the students in that room with PC's? Imagine the heat from all of the prepubescent boys and girls after PE crammed together with a PC for each? Air conditioning costs would skyrocket. (As would the demand for air fresheners.) Remember testing must also be done all at the same time on the same day. We don't want anyone getting an advantage by being tested on day two after they have texted each other the answers. This requires a lot of space and a lot of AC!
Districts have been going with 1 to 1 pilots for years in laptop initiatives that had onsite repair and assistance for the students and teachers when their laptops were not working. This is a wonderful idea and I wish every school could do this but it isn't feasible for every student in the US to have a laptop or PC to use in class. So begins the tablet and Chromebook war for the educational environment.
Tablets like the iPad can deliver, create and curate awesome content. Schools who have taken the time to properly train, collaborate and plan for their tablet initiatives have reported amazing results. (Despite some growling by teachers.) Then came the Chromebook. What a PC can do, Chromebook can do and it comes with a keyboard, very low price and no more expensive updates or drivers because it is all cloud based!
What is cloud based? Basically, all of the stuff you think of that your computer can do is being done on a server somewhere else. Not on your laptop or PC at the desk. Remember those custom built Chinese PC's? Don't need them. When Google wants to update they just change things on their server and the next time you access your account you are already updated. Pretty spiffy! this reduces the costs for school districts with robust wireless networks on their hardware outlay.
Notice I said robust wireless network. That is the catch. You have to be able to access the cloud. If I am in a part of the building without a wireless network access point my Chromebook is useless. That is the sticking point for wholesale adoption. If you are wondering why don't we update the networks? We are,. just not as fast as we need to because we are federally funded. If Mr. Obama and the politicos in Washington don't pay to upgrade public school access we have to ask the taxpayer to do it. Not many taxpayers in the local area like paying for something that isn't physical. I can't show you wireless like I can a pencil and paper. This is quite a gotcha since the majority of voters learned everything with pencil and paper. (Remember, senior citizens account for the majority of votes.)
So how does this impact planning? We can't plan for the future. Period. If you are trying to formulate a 5 or ten year plan and stick to it? Pack up and go home. In five years we may be laughing at the idea of using Chromebooks. In ten years we may be doing our computing virtually on special surfaces. We can't predict it. Worse yet state testing planners, administrators and teachers are not as quick to grasp this fluid situation. We aren't going to be buying any new PC's in favor of Chromebooks and iPads. Cheaper and easier to use and maintain. Yet I will have to oversee the purchase of 30 PC's for testing purposes because planners and purchasers couldn't predict the swiftness in adoption of this new tech.