Chromebooks Receive New Homepage
Student scrolls through The Sage website.
Oct 25, 2017
After years of opening up their computers to see Clever, The Sage News website is now the first thing Sage Creek students see after opening the Chrome browser on school-issued Chromebooks. The Sage requested for the district to make this change as a way to engage more viewers on the site.
Junior Bryant Kitisin, a reporter for The Sage, explained this change.
“As a journalism class, we decided that we wanted to change the homepage so the students can be more exposed to our website,” Kitisin said.
Right off the bat, students have the opportunity to browse through everything that The Sage website entails, which includes News, Sports, Entertainment, Feature, Opinion, and Multimedia pieces.
Senior Laurenne Oliver has gone to Sage Creek all four of her years in highschool, and she was pleased with the change of the chromebook’s homepage.
“With The Sage website being on the screen first, I actually have read some articles and have looked through most of the site, it’s way better than the old iBoss,” Oliver said.
People who never expected themselves to read articles published on The Sage are becoming regular readers due to the exposure that The Sage has gotten from replacing iBoss.
“At first I didn’t really notice, but the more I signed into my CUSD account, I realized that it was different and that it is The Sage, since then I actually have started reading an article per day — so yeah I’m glad that it’s the new homepage,” junior Sammie Amezcua said.
Teachers have noticed the change, as well. AP English and yearbook teacher Rachel Merino-Ott said her students pointed out the new homepage during class.
“I think that it was a clever idea. Representation matters. Opening up to The Sage will draw more readers in as they find interesting and eye-catching stories,” Merino-Ott said.
With The Sage being the new homepage of the chromebooks, viewers and readers of the site are expected to rise. Staff writers of the journalism class hope that their pieces get a wider audience and that their stories can reach out and draw in new readers.
Connor ◊ Oct 26, 2017 at 11:01 am
This is a very great way to advertise the sage, and the activity on it increasing is good proof of that. However, I think that it would be even better if the chromebooks had more than one default page open. The most commonly used site on the chromebooks is google classroom, so I think that would be a great secondary page.
Charlie Lewis ◊ Oct 31, 2017 at 9:46 am
I agree with this. 90% of the time that I use a chromebook, I use google classroom. I don’t really care about the change from clever to the sage, because I do not regularly use either, but having it pull up google classroom would save me a few clicks every day.
Andrew Coviello ◊ Oct 26, 2017 at 9:05 am
There’s one thing that’s concerning about the chromebooks – the number of websites being blocked, unnecessarily. Let’s find out who’s doing this because whoever is, they’re active. #DestroyFascism
Max Quirin ◊ Oct 26, 2017 at 11:19 am
Agreed. I have come across information that would be used for educational purposes that are blocked unnecessarily.
Joey Babcock ◊ Oct 27, 2017 at 12:41 pm
The district makes the decision on what sites are blocked, not necessarily a single person, you can actually submit sites and request them to be unlocked if they have educational value.
Sam Bodnar ◊ Oct 25, 2017 at 3:25 pm
Congrats to “The Sage” for this step-up!
Editors: Make sure to go back on this article and add ” ” every time that “The Sage” is referenced. Also, this sentence: “Senior Laurenne Oliver has gone to Sage Creek all four of her years in highschool” spells high school incorrectly.
🙂 Props to my year #2 staff!!!