Since 2021, the Toronto District School Board has given students in Grade 5 and Grade 9 Chromebook laptops at the start of the school year. A lot of the classwork students have is online these days, so not having Chromebooks could affect students' ability to access course work.

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Do Chromebooks affect a student’s learning experience at Harbord? For the first seven weeks of the new school year at Harbord C.I., the Grade 9 students didn’t receive their Chromebooks. Grade 9 students and teachers were asked about how it affected their learning and teaching.

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Grade 9 English teacher Ms. Williams felt that the Chromebooks being late affected her teaching plan. She explained, “I am trying my best to use paper more so that I'm not reliant on students using Chromebooks. In order for me to get Chromebooks for my students, it involves me taking my students to the library every period.” She also said that to book the Chromebook carts is really inconvenient for her.

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The late arrival of the Chromebooks also affected students. Grade 9 student Gryffin Palmateer believed it fully affected his high school experience. “If you don’t have Chromebooks, you don’t really have any internet access, and when you do research you don’t have everything you need,” Gryffin explained.

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When other students were asked if it affected their learning, they didn’t believe that it did as much. Grade 9 student Ayden Johnson stated, “I already have a computer, and I do most of my work on that, so I haven't really been affected by the computers not getting here.” Although he was not affected by the lack of Chromebooks at the start of the year, he still wanted to get his in the near future so he could have a separate laptop for school only.

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When asked about how it changed teaching, Grade 9 English teacher Ms. Garner-Pringle explained that she needed to make paper and online copies of the class work. “I have to prepare tech as well as paper copies to allow everybody to move forward equally, and sometimes our tech is not working,” she mentioned.

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Overall, the Chromebooks seem to affect the way Grade 9s are being taught and how they learn. Even when people said they were not affected, they said they would appreciate getting the laptops. Luckily, the Grade 9 students of H.C.I. received their Chromebooks on Friday the 27th of October and will have these Chromebooks for the rest of their time in the TDSB.