I am currently investigating new equipment and software to keep us ahead of the curve regarding technology use in education. With so many schools moving to a one-to-one or BYOD architecture I am currently looking into a number of options while weighing their benefits with the cost and learning curve. This week I am evaluating a Chromebook with a google docs scenario.
So far I have been highly impressed by the hardware and its capabilities via an online cloud based presence. Cost run around the $250 mark verses the $500 range for other tablets or $1000 for full laptops. Capabilities are near that of a full laptop and everything any tablet can do. Speed of use is tremendously fast! The devices include full keyboards, audio, microphones, cameras, usb ports and other various I/O connectivity.
The only limitation is that most of your current technological architecture must be based online. In our case most of it is already. Email, web-editing, lumen, yearbook, online education, etc are all already web based. Students would be required to set up a google user account but so far that has been simple and the learning curve is short. Doing this results in other benefits. All file data is removed from our server freeing up space and management. Security is constantly updated and FERPA approved. Data integrity is assured across multiple servers and backups. All such management is done by google. Access to file by students would no longer only be at school but anyplace they have Internet access thus allowing more time to work.
Utilizing management software all units can be set up and controlled by the school. In addition the software management would lock they system via a unique identification number so that theft of the unit would be deterred. The unit would remain locked out even if completely reset.
google is dedicated to providing a teaching environment that understands the future of technology. Their goal is to prep students for the job market of the future. They understand that over 60% of future jobs don't even exist yet and they move constantly to keep up with that pace.
Costs could be offset utilizing free online resources such as replacing textbook costs with online versions. The low cost of the units them selves are less than a band instrument or sports uniform. While many apps are free even the ones that cost are rarely much more then a few school supplies and all app licenses are managed through the management software. This means the app licenses can be pulled off of a unit and used again on a new unit.
During my testing of the unit I connected to our existing web-based editor for out web page and wrote this article complete on the Chromebook unit to assure that such a task was readily doable.