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Question

Teachers: Do you like your Chromebooks?

May 29, 2017 7:14AM PDT

I recently read online somewhere (I don’t remember where) that around 60% of school-supplied laptops are Chromebooks. A couple of days ago I spoke to a former student of mine who reported that his middle school uses Chromebooks and “all the kids hate them.” He then detailed all the things that Chromebooks don’t do that he was able to do with his Windows laptop at my private school.

My school was using Windows machines before I got there, and I have continued to specify Windows now that I am charge of ordering new units. I prefer them because (a) they can do what I want to do with my students, and (b) what the students learn about the machine itself while using Windows will generally be transferable to what they use at home. (Not many of them seem to have Apples.)

So my question is, why are Chromebooks the most popular machines used by schools? And how do teachers feel about this? Do you all love your Chromebooks, or do you wish that your school would switch to something better?

NTG

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Not a teacher but I see why I'd deploy Chromebooks.
May 29, 2017 8:27AM PDT

Windows by its design is PERSONAL. From the very beginning Windows allows the person at the keyboard to do anything, even to the point of wrecking the Windows install and such.

Chromebooks don't have that issue so you don't spend time troubleshooting or reloading Windows.

You can focus on using rather than supporting.

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Answer
The biggest reason Chromebooks have entered the education
May 30, 2017 5:49AM PDT

market is cost. Because the Chrome OS is a controlled OS it's more secure and less susceptible to viruses. The hardware that supports the OS doesn't need to be the most powerful hence the low cost. MS is now attacking that market with Windows 10 S. They released their own Surface Laptop which isn't a low cost but they aim to hit the college student and professors with the SL. The OEM's are releasing low cost machine to compete with the Chromebooks. These new Windows 10 S machines will only run apps from the store. MS is pushing for more education type apps for the store and will be releasing an Office app that can be downloaded from the store when the Surface Laptop is released.

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Cost, yes. But what about performance?
May 30, 2017 5:58AM PDT

I figured that cost was probably a big reason why Chromebooks are so common in schools. But are you a teacher? If so, what do you think of how well they perform as teaching aids?

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I could test this angle.
May 30, 2017 6:45AM PDT

I have a run of the mill Chromebook. How would I test performance?

As a teaching aid I can see the benefits since the machine gets to work rather than everyone wondering why it's not working.