This year, much of the DGN has switched over to Google programs to go along with the 1:1 chromebook policy that was implemented.

In the past, Blackboard has been used as a tool both for teachers and students to post and submit homework, along with the new use of Google Drive in the past three years.

As new technology develops and better programs that can be used in the classroom are brought into DGNs curriculum, the range of programs becomes too broad. Some teachers are stuck on older programs such as Blackboard while other teachers have moved on to Google Classroom, Google Plus, or Google Community.

Some teachers use both, while others use neither, and resort to email or good old-fashioned hand outs.
Many of these websites and programs share similar purposes, they all can share videos, links, and even have places where teachers can post assignments and places for students to submit homework.

DGN should implement a new policy requiring all teachers to switch to the same program. This will ensure that all staff members and the student body as a whole, will be connected and unified.

The cross-usage of all these different websites and platforms causes major headaches and mass confusion among students. Trying to juggle homework and figure out what assignment is posted where or trying to determine if it was emailed to you is just too much.

The life of a high school student is stressful enough without worrying about whether or not they did the right assignments or if they can find the homework for that night.It is understandable that certain tools may be easier to use for certain subjects and they may be more useful for a specific class, but forcing students to toggle between many different websites defeats the purpose of the chromebooks.

The chromebooks are here to make our lives easier, to be able to access anything at a moment’s notice. If we are busy trying to navigate the numerous sites, we will miss something important and the chromebooks could actually be detrimental to students’ learning.

So, as a staff, our advice to teachers is to ditch the dinosaur that is Blackboard and switch to the program for which the chromebooks were made for, Google. This is the point of the student body having access to these computers. Requiring everything to be done on one online tool would make life a lot easier for students.