Central High School makes push for Chromebooks in the classroom
Mar 9, 2016, 4:55 AM
Central High School in Phoenix needs more technology in the classroom, and they need help to get there.
The school is partnering with GoFundMe to raise money for Chromebooks, which are laptops students can use during the school day. Central is one of nine schools across the country participating in the GoFundMe Chromebook Challenge. The school that gets the most Facebook shares of its GoFundMe page between now and March 22 will get 100 Chromebooks, courtesy of GoFundMe.
“They value the Chromebook at about $200,” said Michael Gard, assistant principal for instruction at Central High School. “A hundred Chromebooks is equivalent of $20,000 to the school.”
GoFundMe will match up to $5,000 raised by each school to fund the purchase of the Chromebooks. Gard said last year, they just replaced floppy disk computers in their lab. He said winning this challenge would help the school technologically and would help students stay up to speed with the latest technologies.
“They’re going to be exposed to the top of the line technology in those state universities or national universities,” Gard said. “We need to have those skills and those abilities on campus so the students are prepared when they leave us.”
English teacher Seth Craig said this would mean a lot to students, who would benefit greatly from the Chromebooks.
“This would give so many more students access to so many more programs [and] so many more educational opportunities in the classroom,” Craig said.
English and student government teacher Marilyn Limb said the students have really embraced the Chromebook campaign.
“When we brought this to the kids they were all just super excited about it [and] immediately jumped in, ready to go,” Limb said.
On the GoFundMe Page is a video featuring international students talking about how new technology would help them break down language barriers. One of those students is Aime Mukiza. He left the Congo in Africa to come to the United States to receive an education. He said when he arrived, it was a challenge to communicate with students and teachers. But he learned English and now can interact with students and teachers. He said computers helped him with translation, and the Chromebooks would help even more international students at the school learn and communicate in the English language.
“We face the hardest problem of communicating and getting English on a level where we want it to be,” Mukiza said. “[Computers have] helped me like translating English and having wider communication to the people around me.”
