Has anyone else got a Chromebook for every KS2 pupil?

[MrsChromebook]

Hi all

 

Sorry, but I couldn't find the Chromebook forum - I must be dim + blind. There probably is somewhere, but if there isn't a specific Chromebook forum, would it be a good idea to create one, as there are lots of schools who only use them, certainly at primary level?

 

I'm a newbie here but been teaching for 10 years and now have responsibility for the computers in my new school (as in, I've been here six months now). This is my third primary school, and all three have used Chromebooks for the curriculum (still use Windows for Admin, but that is also something we are looking at, as we would like to go exclusively towards Google). My current school and the last one uses them exclusively now, having got rid of their Apple and Windows laptops and we are thinking of aiming to get all students in KS2 their own Chromebook.

 

Has anyone done this in a primary school, please? Pros and cons? We have spent the last few months getting our WiFi equipment upgraded, expanded and as bulletproof as it can be.

 

Thank you.

[dhicks]

Has anyone done this in a primary school, please? Pros and cons?

 

Yes, all our year 4,5,6,7 and 8 pupils have Chromebooks, our year 1,2 and 3 pupils have shared clusters of devices. All the devices are owned by the school and stay in school overnight - avoids devices getting lost, and there was a concern with children being a target for thieves.

 

The Chromebooks, as a whole, are holding out quite well - over 2 years, about 10% annually have needed repairs, which isn't bad. Most repairs needed have been broken screens, and it's proving more difficult to get hold of replacement parts - the devices were £200 each to begin with, and if you need to replace both a screen and a keyboard you might as well just buy a new device. The warranty doesn't cover breakages through usage, so for the next batch I think we'll look at some kind of extended service package - either that, or buy a bunch of spare parts along with the devices when they are available.

 

Chromebooks are kept in charging cabinets in classrooms. We have a suspicion a lot of the breakages are happening as children lift the devices in and out of the storage boxes, bashing the sides against the edges of the cabinet - I don't know if anyone makes padded storage cabinets.

[PotNoodleTech]

Not Primary, but have rolled out chromebooks to all our Year7 and it is working well - we would like to expand this to the whole of KS3 (and KS4) if we can find the funding!

 

Chromebooks work so well, especially if the teachers are embedding using google and classroom in their everyday lives.

 

I'd say your on the right track!!

[MrsChromebook]

Thanks. I was thinking along these lines, but can’t make up my mind whether students having their own machines, taking them home bringing them to school with all that that entails etc is a good idea.

 

What a strange place to put posts about Chromebooks and discussions about Chrome OS! How odd not to have a dedicated forum for this very important and growing branch. I propose we change the name of all Windows forums to ‘Traditional old computers’, justto compensate.

[elsiegee40]

 

What a strange place to put posts about Chromebooks and discussions about Chrome OS! How odd not to have a dedicated forum for this very important and growing branch. I propose we change the name of all Windows forums to ‘Traditional old computers’, justto compensate.

It's a position forced on us by the old platform we are using at the moment. If we can stop breaking the migration tool with the size of our database then we'll migrate to a new platform and be able to sort things out. Right now our hands are tied and have been for a long time; it is very frustrating.

[SomeITBloke]

Have just gone full 1:2 across Foundation to Year 6 after 2 years and no longer have any Windows machines for pupils. We have a 16 bay trolley in each class. Foundation devices are in Kiosk mode and Y1+ have their own account and staf make use of Google Classroom.

 

The costs savings over Windows devices meant that we could increase pupil device by 50% whilst still making savings. Then there is the reduced management needs vs Windows which frees up time to support the T&L.

 

In the same boat as you as the next logical step would be to replace staff laptops where possible but printing and MIS are the 2 biggest hurdles at the moment.