Supply, demand amid COVID
An unfilled Chromebook order leaves 1,700 Albany students scrambling
On Nov. 20, eight months into the pandemic, and eight months into remote learning for many area students, Shannon Hanks’ son still couldn’t go to school. The eighthgrader had missed 171 classes since the school year began because he didn’t have his own computer. Hanks is a single mother of three. Her two high schoolers took priority when it came to using the two computers the Albany school district had given her family. Remote learning has been the only option for junior and senior high schoolers this academic year in the district. “They were arguing back and forth, they tried to trade days back and forth, but that just didn’t work,” Hanks said. “They all had work to do and they all had the same schedule and had to be in class at the same time.” Her son is one of 1,700 students at Albany public schools who has needed to share a device during remote learning. The district, along with
Schenectady school district and others across the nation, is awaiting a muchanticipated Chromebook order placed in July. School officials were told to expect delivery in midSeptember and never imagined they’d still be waiting for the shipment in December.
Hanks considered buying another laptop but, because she is disabled and receiving federal disability benefits as her primary source of income, she couldn’t afford to. “To see them fighting over something that is as important as education was hard,” she said.
Recently, a local nonprofit that supports Albany school district programs has stepped up to ensure the Hanks and other children can all access education. Albany Fund for Education collects computers, wipes them clean, and gives them to families in need. The group has distributed 115 devices to date and is still accepting donations.
“It has been going so great, oh my goodness, since we received that computer no one has been absent or late or anything like that,” Hanks said. “It is amazing.”
The Albany and Schenectady school districts ordered 10,400 Chromebooks from CDW- G, a technology provider for state and local government institutions including public schools. Spokespeople for the Albany school district said that large volumes of Chromebook orders by districts all over the world have resulted in prolonged back orders among many manufacturers.
CDW- G did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Eliot Rich, a University of Albany professor of technology supply chains, said these persistent delays are predictable and troubling. Rich said that Chromebook manufacturers gather parts from all over the world and operate their businesses with a “just in time” model— meaning they only order what they need when they need it. “We have taken so much slack out of the process that we can’t absorb the shock,” Rich said about the massive spike in demand for Chromebooks. “It’s not necessarily bad or good, but it’s damn frustrating to a school system that works with a vendor.”
Like Hanks, Mary Taylor’s youngest son also wasn’t going to school until he received a donated computer at the end of October. Taylor focused on getting her fourth- and fifth-graders online more than her first-grader, who is a student at Albany’s Delaware Community School. She predicts he missed three months of school. “He got very upset. He is a very strong learner. He likes to learn. He likes to be in school,” Taylor said.
The teachers at his school didn’t have a solution, Taylor said. “They kept just saying ‘we are sorry there are no available computers.’ ”
When school officials in Albany realized that their Chromebook order was not going to come in time for the start of school in September, they added Chromebook capabilities to 1,000 devices and gave them to families with multiple children learning at home. Though they have given out 4,900 devices to date, there still aren’t enough for all students to have their own.
In Schenectady, the district ordered 2,000 Android tablets for students to use while they waited for the Chromebooks. Now they have enough devices for every student to log into school, however, tablets don’t have the same features that a Chromebook has for a Google Meet class. Students can’t raise their hand, enter a breakout room, or change their screen background.
“Some students were very upset when they saw students change their background or raise their hand and they didn’t have that,” said Sharon Eddy, a kindergarten teacher at Van Corlaer Elementary. “It was hard to explain to a 5-year-old. There were some students almost in tears.”
The students without a Chromebook also struggle to multitask. Eddy will often have her kids log onto Seesaw, a learning app, while in the Google Meet classroom, so she can watch them work. But students on tablets can’t toggle between the two applications. In other ways though, the tablets have been easier for younger students to use than Chromebooks. Tablets let students lay the device flat on the table and use their fingers to write, she explained.
“When we’re teaching how to write words and sentences, it’s very difficult for them to practice on a Chromebook,” Eddy said. Instead, she has her students write on laminated sheets with dry-erase markers and show her on the screen.
The district plans to replace the tablets with Chromebooks once the shipment arrives. Rich, the University of Albany professor, believes that even once the Chromebooks arrive, demand will continue to be an issue. School systems might not have the ability — not enough funds and staff — to buy computers for all students going forward as well as pay for repairs.
Rich also predicts that now that teachers have developed digital-native lesson plans, online learning will continue after the pandemic. “We have been forced to cross a difficult line in instruction, and I don’t think we are going back,” he said.