Chromebooks to be given to all SPERD students living on First Nations

All students from the communities of Saddle Lake, Goodfish Lake, Frog Lake, and Kehewin Cree Nation who attend schools in the St. Paul Education area will be receiving a Chromebook by early in the new year.

SPERD superintendent Glen Brodziak said it’s important to the division to make technology available to all their students, and so it was important to work with Indigenous Services Canada and the First Nations to make it happen.

“Through ISC, Chromebooks are now available as part of the regular student supplies, which we’re very happy with because we think it’s warranted. So we’re happy to take part in this,” said Brodziak.

SPERD has been working with all their families to make sure students have access to the technology they need this year. According to Brodziak, the division had made a number of Chromebooks available for families to purchase “but we also went to all our families to say if you don’t have the means to get a machine, we will still get them in your hands. So we’ve loaned out many, many machines throughout our division because it’s important.”

The funding for the Chromebooks is through a partnership with ISC and representatives of each Nation and will be delivered to SPERD in late December or early January. According to Brodziak, the schools will work with each family to arrange pick up for the technology.

Chromebooks are used by many students to access their at-home learning content whether synchronously online with the rest of their class or through a USB stick which has the content and assignments saved to it.

“The Internet can be a challenge on some of the Nations, but also in many rural areas throughout the province. So we recognize that, but while we recognize that there are still ways to access the technology and have communication between the school and that student and their technology,” said Brodziak.