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Case study: desert sands unified sChool distriCt

samsung Chromebooks democratize learning in diverse school district

oVerVieW Customer Need

The Desert Sands Unified School District has a diverse student enrollment and wanted to ensure that all students would have computing access to acquire 21st century skills. the district also needed the computing devices to administer online assessment tests for the Common Core state standards initiative. Given tight budgets and limited IT staff, the devices needed to be affordable and require minimal support.

Samsung Solution

desert sands chose to deploy samsung Chromebooks across the district. Over 17,000 samsung Chromebooks have been supplied to every 5th grade classroom, every 6th-11th grade Language Arts classroom, and every high-school math classroom. Over time, the district plans to furnish every classroom with samsung Chromebooks so that every student will have 1:1 computing access.

Results

the samsung Chromebooks have been enthusiastically adopted by the students and faculty. students now have equal computer access so they can build critical computer skills like keyboarding and applications. In addition, the district is able to administer the Common Core online assessments with an affordable infrastructure. the Chromebooks have also proven to be extremely easy to set up and manage for a small it team.

Early on, the district’s technology committee recognized the need to provide greater computing access to its students because a large majority come from homes with limited financial resources and cannot afford computing devices like PCs and notebooks.

“77% of our students qualify for the reduced lunch program, which indicates they have very limited means to access computers at home,” says Dr. George Araya, Director of Instructional technology. “We wanted to provide all of our students with the 21st century skills they would need to advance in higher education and in the job market.”

Historically, each classroom had three or four desktop PCs for shared use and computer labs for technology instruction. the high acquisition and support costs of a traditional PC-based (desktop or notebook) simply did not allow for a one device per student (one-to-one computing) model.

With the implementation of the Common Core State Standards curriculum, the state of California requires students to take an online assessment test called

the CaasP (California assessment of student Performance and Progress). the online testing requirement further drove the district’s need to provide students with wider computer access.

“if all our students were going to be testing online, they were going to need to know how to use a computing device and how to make it a part of their daily routine – from keyboarding to online research,” says Sally Adams, Technology Facilitator for the district’s middle schools. “so that drove the need to get devices into the hands of students.”

However, with limited budget and staff, the IT team needed a computing device that was affordable and easily manageable. “With one-to-one computing, after the cost of acquisition, the next big challenge is service and support,” says Dr. Araya. “With a traditional notebook or desktop machine, we would have to deal with long installation times, viruses, local storage, and OS issues – we just didn’t have the support staff to manage tens of thousands of devices.”

the Customer needProvide a learning Platform for a diverse student Population

students work together on classroom assignments with samsung Chromebooks

the Customerdesert sands usd

located in the Coachella valley in California, the Desert Sands Unified school district (usd) serves nearly 30,000 students. The district’s mission is to ensure every student develops the knowledge, skills and motivation to succeed as a productive, ethical, global citizen by assuring equal access to learning.

Desert Sands offers comprehensive educational programs and services to a multi-ethnic student population with wide socioeconomic backgrounds and cultural interests. in order to meet the needs of a diverse community, the district operates 20 elementary schools, 7 middle schools, 4 traditional high schools, 2 alternate high schools and an independent study K-12 school for students that are home schooled or need a non-traditional learning path.

The district’s instructional technology committee designs and plans a technology platform that ensures that all students, regardless of their socioeconomic background, have the same opportunities to leverage technology resources for academic success. the district has a dedicated IT staff that installs and manages its it infrastructure and instructional technologies.

“We wanted to provide all of our students with the 21st century skills they would need to advance in higher education and in the job market.”

-dr. George araya director of instructional

technology

After careful consideration, Desert sands chose samsung Chromebooks and has already outfitted 4th-12th grade classrooms with over 17,000 Chromebooks. samsung is the leading manufacturer of Chromebooks and builds many of the internal components for higher quality control and better reliability. “We chose samsung because it was one of the first to offer Chromebooks years ago and had already developed a reputation for reliability during our pilots,” says Dr. Araya.

Samsung offers several models with a range of screen sizes and hardware configurations. The 11.6” models are the perfect size for younger students and weigh less than three pounds. the 13.3” model has a best-in-class Full HD display that is perfect for middle and high school student needs. they boot up in less than 10 seconds and have up to 8.5 hours of battery life for all day computing in the classroom.

the Chrome os updates automatically so no device-level updates are needed. And student assignments and files are stored on the Google Cloud so there are no backup and recovery hassles. the samsung Chromebooks include Google Apps for Education, a robust set of productivity tools including email, calendar, documents, and more. these tools are free to schools and are built for the web so everyone can work together across any device, anytime.

When students are at home, they can access their class assignments through a Chrome browser on a desktop PC, tablet or even a smartphone.

For $30 per device, schools can utilize a web-based console available from Google to manage the entire device fleet. The Chromebooks are also easy to deploy and manage. according to a recent IDC study,1 it takes less than 30 minutes to deploy a Chromebook (vs. 2.5 hours for a traditional PC). the study also shows that it takes only .23 hours of it labor per year to manage a Chromebook (vs. 2.68 hours per year for a traditional PC).

these dramatic reductions – when multiplied by tens of thousands of devices, have a major impact on the IT staffing levels and rollout schedules. “We can deploy a classroom kit in a matter of hours, not days,” says dr. araya. “We manage everything through the cloud and have just three support technicians for the 17,000 Chromebooks,” says Dr. Araya.

The low acquisition costs and simplified management helps the district transition to a one-to-one computing model. “our samsung Chromebooks cost about $300 while a traditional PC and monitor costs more than $700. Multiply that by 17,000 and it is very easy to go with samsung Chromebooks,” says Dr. Araya.

the samsunG solutionsamsung Chromebooks democratize learning

With Samsung Chromebooks, no student is left out of group activities

QuiCk PRofile as used by desert sands usd

AlSo AvAilAble:SAmSuNg ChRomebook 2 11.6” ANd 13.3”

oS: ChromeSiZe: 11.6”, 13.3” diagonalReSoluTioN: 1366 x 768, 1920 x 1080bRighTNeSS: 250nitPRoCeSSoR: 1.79 Ghz exynos octaWeighT: 2.65 lbs., 3.06 lbs.bATTeRY: up to 8.5 hours

oS: ChromeSiZe: 11.6” diagonalReSoluTioN: 1366 x 768bRighTNeSS: 200nitPRoCeSSoR: 1.7 Ghz exynos dualWeighT: 2.43 lbs.bATTeRY: up to 6.3 hours

SAmSuNg ChRomebook

© 2015 Samsung Electronics America, Inc. All rights reserved. Samsung is a registered trademark of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. All products, logos and brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. screen images simulated. this case study is for informational purposes only. Samsung makes no warranties, express or implied, in this case study. CASEST-COM-DESERTSANDS-APR15J

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teachers enjoy increased student contribution with the use of samsung Chromebooks

the samsung Chromebooks have far exceeded the district’s expectations. “While the driver for the broad samsung Chromebooks rollout was facilitating the CAASP online test, the real benefits have been far more profound,” says Cyndi Furr, Project facilitator for high schools.

Ms. Furr explains, “the entire learning process has changed in the classroom. For example, in the old way, a teacher might get to call on a few students during discussion and the rest of the kids might have great ideas but may not get a chance to engage or may be too shy to raise their hand. But with Samsung Chromebooks, students can post online and the teacher can project the results. every student is now contributing to the discussion and involved.”

samsung Chromebooks have also changed the way teachers and students engage. “some teachers were fearful at first but now say it has transformed their classroom,” says Kirsten Wright,

technology Coordinator for elementary schools. “the behavior issues have gone away. students want to be there and they are engaged.”

the Chromebooks have stood up to the wear and tear of the K-12 classroom environment. “the Chromebooks have been great – occasionally we have a student who might have an issue and we just swap it out with a spare and they are up and running immediately since all of their work is on the cloud,” says Ms. Furr.

The web-based Chromebook management Console enables a three person it support team to manage the entire 17,000 device fleet. This works out to an astounding 5,666 devices managed per technician. “We have been extremely happy with the reliability, affordability and manageability of samsung Chromebooks and eventually plan on completing the roll out of a one-to-one computing model in the coming years,” says dr. araya.

“With Samsung Chromebooks, students can post online and the teacher can project the results. every student is now contributing to the discussion and involved.”

-Cyndi Furr Project facilitator for

high schools

the resultsTransformative for Teaching and Learning, Easy on IT