Richmond County Schools Pilots Chromebooks, Google Apps for Education

Richmond County Schools in North Carolina is piloting Chromebooks and Google Apps for Education in three of its classrooms.

Tony Tuso, the chief technology officer for the district, has followed similar initiatives in other North Carolina districts and around the world, and he thinks it could be a good fit for Richmond County. "This is where the world is right now, and it's certainly where we want our school district to go," he said in a news release.

According to information on the district's site, it selected the Lenovo Thinkpad Chromebook 11e for the pilot project. The device features an Intel Celeron processor, 11.6-inch high-definition, anti-glare display and interior and exterior reinforcement for school-wide deployments and portability. The district's site lists numerous benefits to the Chromebook for education, including short start-up time, leaving more time for instruction, increased opportunities for collaboration, safety and security features, extended battery life, low cost and cloud-based storage.

Austin Good, an English language arts teacher at Rohanen Middle School is piloting 25 Chromebooks and Google Apps for Education in his classroom. He has been asking his students to complete four to five practice assignments on their Chromebooks each week. After each assignment, Good provides the students with additional support around any questions they got wrong. At the end of the week, he gives them a quiz, and students have to get at least 80 percent correct before they can move on to the next lesson.

"I get a lot more feedback throughout the week as to the work they're doing," said Good in a prepared statement. "It's graded right there, so I can see what they're struggling with and adapt my teaching to it."

The district launched its pilot program last year. Currently the students are not allowed to take the devices home and can use them only during their pilot program class. Based on the success of the pilot project, the district hopes to implement a full 1-to-1 initiative, beginning with Richmond Senior High School.

About the Author

Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • robot typing on a computer

    Microsoft Unveils 'Computer Use' Automation in Copilot Studio

    Microsoft has announced a new AI-powered feature called "computer use" for its Copilot Studio platform that allows agents to directly interact with Web sites and desktop applications using simulated mouse clicks, menu selections and text inputs.

  • AI microchip under cybersecurity attack, surrounded by symbols of threats like a skull, spider, lock, and warning shield

    Report Finds Agentic AI Protocol Vulnerable to Cyber Attacks

    A new report from Backslash Security has identified significant security vulnerabilities in the Model Context Protocol (MCP), technology introduced by Anthropic in November 2024 to facilitate communication between AI agents and external tools.

  • educators seated at a table with a laptop and tablet, against a backdrop of muted geometric shapes

    HMH Forms Educator Council to Inform AI Tool Development

    Adaptive learning company HMH has established an AI Educator Council that brings together teachers, instructional coaches and leaders from school district across the country to help shape its AI solutions.

  • illustration of a human head with a glowing neural network in the brain, connected to tech icons on a cool blue-gray background

    Meta Introduces Stand-Alone AI App

    Meta Platforms has launched a stand-alone artificial intelligence app built on its proprietary Llama 4 model, intensifying the competitive race in generative AI alongside OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and xAI.