🚨 Technology Updates 🚨

Key Differences in Detail

• Student Interaction: The free plan includes the web-based Brisk Boost, but the full student-facing Chrome extension, which offers more controlled and monitored student interaction, is a premium feature available through school/district plans.

• Feedback & Grading: The free version provides AI suggestions for first-pass feedback, while the paid plans offer a more advanced "Targeted Feedback" tool that can align with specific educational standards and rubrics.

• Administrative Access: Paid school and district plans provide administrators with dashboards to monitor usage and engagement, as well as dedicated support and custom data privacy agreements.

Speed & Reliability: Paid plans benefit from faster and more reliable "Turbo AI" capabilities and do not have the usage limits sometimes experienced by free users.

🚨 Quick Alert: Teacher Chromebook Plus Devices Are Here!

💻 What’s New?

To provide reliable devices post-ESSER and ensure teachers have tools designed for instruction, the district has begun issuing Lenovo Chromebook Plus devices to:

• Teachers new to the district who previously received a student Chromebook

• Teachers with a device that is broken or needs repair
  
  

⚡ Why Chromebook Plus?

These new devices offer:

• 2× the speed of the existing MacBook Air

• 2× the onboard storage

• Touchscreen + tablet mode

• Built-in AI features for teachers

• Sustainable long-term device management for the district
  
  

🔄 Transition Plan

• Eligible staff will begin receiving devices this week.

• Schools (2 per zone) may volunteer to pilot Chromebook Plus devices.

• If you receive a Chromebook Plus and still have a working MacBook Air, you may keep both temporarily to ease the transition.

• Eventually, MacBook Airs will be collected and no longer supported for staff who have moved to Chromebook Plus.

📞 Contact

Greg Limperis
Director of Technology
glimperis@lowell.k12.ma.us
(978) 674-2025