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Guilford Public Schools Receive $70,000 for Chromebooks

The Guilford Public School’s mission to bring technology to every student may soon be achieved thanks in part to $70,000 in state funding. The grant money will be used to equip every student, K-12, with Chromebook personal computer notebooks to facilitate learning.

The grant, which was officially approved on January 29, will bring Guilford closer to giving 100 percent of its students access to modern technology, according to Superintendent of Schools Paul Freeman.

“It is an initiative that we have been working on for quite some time, but this helps quite a bit,” he said. “This particular grant is going to help us essentially give every student the ability to have a computer at their disposal all through the day.”

Freeman said the relatively low price of Chromebooks compared to traditional laptops allowed more to be brought into the schools, increasing the use of Google Classroom.

Google Classroom is a paperless systems that allows students and teachers to join one digital space to review assignments and collaborate on projects. Instead of the teacher printing up documents and distributing them, teachers can post assignments and students can submit work that is then graded and returned to the student, all digitally.

“We are seeing the use of Google Classroom spread throughout the district this year,” he said. “We have been rolling out more Chromebooks to teachers over the past two years. It started out with having a couple in each classroom and then it went to having a couple class sets to be shared and we are working our way very quickly to being at a one-to-one level.”

To accommodate the influx of technology, the school revised its policy on bringing personal devices to school. Freeman said students are now encouraged to bring technology to school.

“Teachers just recognize that it is a way for students to really quickly research, be able to collaborate, and to be able to communicate and share their work,” he said.

State Representative Sean Scanlon, who helped secure the grant money, said he was pleased with the initiative.

“As the world becomes more interconnected and technology driven, our students must learn how to work with and utilize 21st-century tools in addition to and as part of their regular curriculum,” said Scanlon. “I think the more access and exposure we give our students to technology the better in the long run.”

State Representative Vincent Candelora and State Senator Ted Kennedy, Jr., worked alongside Scanlon to help secure the money for Guilford. Kennedy said the money will give students the access to technology they need to be successful later on.

“By educating Connecticut’s students with the same kind of cutting-edge technology they will use in the real world, we are ensuring that they are trained with the skills necessary to meet the 21st-century needs of local businesses and industry,” said Kennedy in a statement. “The funding being approved this week will ensure that from Kindergarten through their senior year of high school, all Guilford public school students are trained and familiar with computers, Internet resources, and other vital modern technologies.”