Chrome will bring about the ICT revolution in schools

[pmdc199]

I'd disagree entirely... Having implemented a batch of Chromebooks at my last school, seeing the sharing abilities when its all tied into Google Apps? It works brilliantly...

 

What about the new Office 365 with office 2013 and sharepoint, that allows similar things and the current version is free to Education?

[CyberNerd]

What about the new Office 365 with office 2013 and sharepoint, that allows similar things and the current version is free to Education?

 

Office 2013 and sharepoint are not free, and don't work on chromebooks, android or IOS.

Google apps does work on chromebooks, android, ios and windows - it is entirely free and has way more features than the free version of Office 365.

There isn't much competition comparing the two because google apps wins hands down.

[GrumbleDook]

Office 2013 and sharepoint are not free, and don't work on chromebooks, android or IOS.

Google apps does work on chromebooks, android, ios and windows - it is entirely free and has way more features than the free version of Office 365.

There isn't much competition comparing the two because google apps wins hands down.

 

Office 2013 is not free, SharePoint Online (as part of the A2 offering of Office 365) is has no direct cost but is not a full SharePoint implementation (but still pretty good).

Google Apps for Education also has no direct cost.

 

The costs for both of the above is time, training, blah, blah, blah ...

 

In the words of Miles Berry ... think of free as in free kittens. They might be given for free but they still have to be fed, watered, taken to the vet, etc.

Google Apps and Office365 both have their quirks on a range of browsers and platforms and are designed to work best with their accompanying OSes.

 

Neither wins ... but neither loses.

[CyberNerd]

Google Apps and Office365 both have their quirks on a range of browsers and platforms and are designed to work best with their accompanying OSes.

 

Neither wins ... but neither loses.

 

I might be inclined to agree with you if there was an area where Office 365 was actually ahead, but it isn't. It feels about the same standard Google apps was 4yrs ago when they started.

Edited November 1, 2012 by CyberNerd

[pmdc199]

But it seems that the web is where things are growing with both these giant companies investing rather than apps for tablets tec, or am I wrong. Some of 2013 365 is good, but Word is very basic.

[sted]

But it seems that the web is where things are growing with both these giant companies investing rather than apps for tablets tec, or am I wrong. Some of 2013 365 is good, but Word is very basic.

 

but what do most people need in a word processor? I struggle to find a must have feature in word since word 95 iirc when it underlined spelling mistakes inline rather than having to spellcheck the document when you have finished

[SYNACK]

but what do most people need in a word processor? I struggle to find a must have feature in word since word 95 iirc when it underlined spelling mistakes inline rather than having to spellcheck the document when you have finished

 

They haven't really needed to, most of the features have been there that long, its just been changing the interface about so the dunces could find the features.

[CyberNerd]

but what do most people need in a word processor? I struggle to find a must have feature in word since word 95 iirc when it underlined spelling mistakes inline rather than having to spellcheck the document when you have finished

 

What some of the more forward thinking teachers tell me they like is to be able to see how students essays progress over time. They want essays to be submitted electronically so they can add comments and let the students work on through those points, they want to be able to see if the student did the essay the night before or if they have thought about it over time, they want to follow students live in lessons and they want revision histories and they want collaboration features. Google apps does all these things on chromebooks, IOS, android, windows and mac. To get Office 365 to get even close to this you need the A3 plan Students: £1.87* per user/month and windows machines plus a wealth of sharepoint experience. Office 365 is really no match for Google apps yet.

[Arthur]

Acer has released a new Chromebook - the C7. Apart from not looking as good as Samsung's Chromebook, it also comes with a HDD and relatively poor battery life.

 

Google has added a third laptop to its current Chrome OS range with the Acer C7, a budget Chromebook that will sell for under $200 in the US from Tuesday and will arrive in the UK shortly.

 

The C7 is a three pound laptop with an 11.6-inch, 1366x768 screen powered by a 1.10GHz Intel Celeron 847 processor with 2MB L3 cache and 2GB of DDR3 memory. The unit has a 320GB platter hard drive, plus a two-year free Google Drive account for 100GB of additional online storage (with 802.11 a/b/g/n to get there), and a claimed 3.5 hour battery life. (Source)

 

http://i.imgur.com/fqOd4.jpg http://i.imgur.com/ZYzV3.jpg

[Theblacksheep]

Acer has released a new Chromebook - the C7. Apart from not looking as good as Samsung's Chromebook, it also comes with a HDD and relatively poor battery life.

 

 

 

199GBP!

[Arthur]

199 GBP!

It looks like Acer have taken too many things from their netbook spare parts bin. I bet the C7 wouldn't last five minutes in most schools!

 

Reviews: The Verge / Engadget

 

As soon as I took the C7 out of its packaging, I started having flashbacks. Flashbacks to a time when no one cared about how a laptop looked or the quality of its materials, a time when we were certain that netbooks were the future. The three-pound, inch-thick laptop is plastic everywhere you look, has exactly no design flair — it comes in silver and black, both boring-looking — and almost no care seems to have been taken in its design or construction. I can easily get my fingernail in the seam between the lid and the bezel around the display, and I'm worried about other things getting in there too. The base's two sections don't come together cleanly, either, and there's a sharp lip on the bottom as a result. Even the hinge sticks out awkwardly behind the base, like it's about to come off. Every part of the C7 bends and flexes as you hold it, and I found myself babying it for fear it would break.

 

http://i.imgur.com/Fpnqn.png

[Quackers]

Now why can Acer not release that Acer C7 as a Windows option for just a little bit more, as its better spec'd than a netbook but at the same price if you pop a Windows licence on.

[SPM]

Office 2013 is not free, SharePoint Online (as part of the A2 offering of Office 365) is has no direct cost but is not a full SharePoint implementation (but still pretty good).

Google Apps for Education also has no direct cost.

 

The costs for both of the above is time, training, blah, blah, blah ...

 

In the words of Miles Berry ... think of free as in free kittens. They might be given for free but they still have to be fed, watered, taken to the vet, etc.

Google Apps and Office365 both have their quirks on a range of browsers and platforms and are designed to work best with their accompanying OSes.

 

Neither wins ... but neither loses.

 

The cost for maintenance of Chromebooks is a lot lower than Windows though, as Chromebooks are Zero Maintenance Zero Touch devices, and there is no hardware, software, or email server/domain authentication server set up and maintenance cost for Google Apps for Domains for Education.

[SPM]

Acer has released a new Chromebook - the C7. Apart from not looking as good as Samsung's Chromebook, it also comes with a HDD and relatively poor battery life.

 

The battery life alone rules it out for schools. The choice of the ARM based Samsung Series 3 Chromebook is a no brainer.

[Arthur]

Lenovo are releasing a Chromebook next month. It won't be cheap though.

 

Today, Lenovo is getting in on the fun with its own Chromebook announcement, but while the Thinkpad X131e Chromebook promises "a rugged design for the classroom environment," you'll pay $429 per laptop to get that extra durability.

 

Like the Acer C7 Chromebook, the X131e Chromebook is a Chrome OS-equipped version of an existing Windows laptop, also (somewhat confusingly) called the X131e. Google's announcement doesn't include hard specifications aside from mentioning that the laptop uses an Intel processor and has 6.5 hours of battery life. But the $619 Windows version of the X131e includes a 1.4GHz Intel Core i3-2367M, 4GB of RAM, an 11.6-inch 1366x768 screen, a 320GB 7200RPM hard drive, dual-band Wi-Fi, and a mobile broadband option—we assume that Lenovo will go with more or less the same specs for the Chromebook version. Its ruggedness means it weighs quite a bit more than the other 11- and 12-inch Chromebooks Google is selling: it's a hefty 3.92 pounds, compared to three pounds for the C7 and 2.4 pounds for Samsung's ARM Chromebook.

 

There's no denying that building a $249 or $199 laptop is going to result in some compromises when it comes to build quality, so it's nice that schools (especially schools with younger and perhaps less conscientious students) will have the option to buy something a little more sturdy. There's also no denying that $429 is a big jump up in price, especially for the price-conscious education market. Many who are in the market for a fleet of Chromebooks may simply opt to get a pair of C7s instead of a single X131e.

 

The X131e Chromebook will be available to educational institutions and businesses starting February 26. As of this writing, Google has no plans to sell this device directly from its Chromebook site or through consumer retail channels, though it's possible that Lenovo will sell it to end users through its own site. (Source)

 

http://i.imgur.com/68vZ2.jpg

Edited January 18, 2013 by Arthur

[SPM]

Lenovo are releasing a Chromebook next month. It won't be cheap though.

 

The Lenovo devices are ruggedized to withstand a battering from schoolkids, so fewer breakages will compensate for higher sticker price to some extent, although deploying a replacement Chromebook is a case of unboxing it, setting the WiFi settings and logging in, so replacement cost is the sticker price. It depends on how many breakages you get. I suspect if kids are expected to take them home, they will break a lot more due to them sitting on them or throwing their bags around. The big cost in desktop provisioning is the IT labour cost for provisioning, maintenance and support, and the cost of teacher and student time spent on end user maintenance, wasted time waiting for boot up at the start of each class etc. rather than the sticker price, so the cost of the Lenovo Chromebooks won't be that much higher as a percent of TCO as compared with the Samsung or Acer.

 

With regard to TCO, an IDC study based on real school data from schools that had large scale deployments of Chromebooks found the TCO of Chromebooks to be about 30% of that of Windows laptops because of that - and they were no doubt for the higher prices of the old Series 5 Chromebooks. The study isn't entirely independent because it was paid for by Google, but it does tally with what teachers and admins from schools that have deployed it are saying independently, and the data can be independently judged.

 

http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en//intl/en/chrome/assets/education/pdf/IDC-WP-Quantifying.the.Economic.Value.of.Chromebooks.for.K-12.Education-082012.pdf

 

It certainly is in line with my experience (not in schools though). I have a Chromebook and Chromebox, and I can vouch for the fact that they are indeed zero-maintenance devices. They are also zero touch devices - which means an IT person never has to touch or log into a Chromebook device. Again this is correct - Chromebooks can be managed using a simple web console for your Google Apps for Domains for your educational or business domain. For example, you can manage users in groups, have certain groups of apps allocated or denied to certain groups of users etc. and changes to the individual devices/user resources will be automatic.

 

Having transition my previous employer to Google Apps for Domains I can also vouch for the fact that Google Apps for Domains leads to big savings over maintaining a Windows Domain because you do not need any servers locally - no AD server for user authentication, no mailserver, no file and print server. You may want a local Moodle server, but this can be outsourced if required. This means no hardware cost, and very low maintenance cost.

 

The biggest advantage however is that you don't need to be physically present in a school to manage it. You don't need to touch the devices, you don't need any physical hardware in the school except for wireless routers and networking (the installation of which you can subcontract to others), you can use Google Apps for Domains and the web management console for most of the server functionality that is required, and other server functionality can be hosted on a Rackspace or Amazon server. For IT sysadmins this means you can work from home, and you can manage a larger number of schools over a larger area than you can with in the case of Windows or Macbook laptop environments.

Edited January 27, 2013 by SPM

[Arthur]

HP has joined the ChromeBook party with its Pavilion Chromebook. Given that it looks cheap and nasty (due to the extensive use of glossy plastic) and the battery only lasts a maximum of 4 hours 15 mins I don't think it's going to get particularly good reviews.

 

Specs: www.shopping.hp.com/shopping/pdf/d1a48ua.pdf

 

HP is preparing to launch its first entry into the Chromebook marketplace, if a PDF found on its site can be believed. According to this listing, HP's currently-unannounced Pavilion Chromebook will feature a 1.1GHz Celeron processor, 2GB of RAM, a 16GB solid-state drive, and a 14-inch, 1366 x 768 display. That display alone makes HP's Chromebook a bit of an oddity — current models from Lenovo, Samsung, and Acer feature 11.6-inch screens, though they run at the same resolution as HP's model. Besides that screen, there doesn't appear to be much to differentiate HP's model from the currently-available Chromebooks — it has the same processor as Acer's model and the same RAM and storage as the Samsung. Unfortunately, HP is only claiming a relatively short 4 hours and 15 minutes of battery life — far behind the nearly seven hours afforded by Samsung's Chromebook.

 

While we're a bit concerned that HP's Celeron processor will cause its Chromebook to heat up more and have worse battery life than other options, the real key here is going to be how the computer feels in use — if the keyboard, trackpad, and screen don't perform well, this machine's prospects won't be good. However, we'll have to get our hands on it to find out for sure. Assuming HP prices this device right, it'll be the latest volley in Google's attacks against Microsoft — HP is one of the biggest Windows clients Microsoft has, just like Lenovo, so any strategy shift like this will likely get Microsoft's attention. We're reaching out to HP to find out any details on the Pavilion Chromebook, including price and availability, and will update this post with any new details. (Source)

 

http://i.imgur.com/Ps2AG4n.png

[Arthur]

I wonder what the numbers are like for UK schools?

 

Google announces that 2,000 schools now use Chromebooks, up 100% in three months « The Next Web

 

Google is fearlessly trudging on with its Chromebook push in the education market. The company announced on Friday that there are now 2,000 schools using Chromebooks for Education around the world. Just three months ago, there were 1,000 schools, showing an impressive adoption rate so far.

 

As part of the milestone, Google offered a list of schools that recently joined the Chromebook camp:

 

• Transylvania County Schools in rural North Carolina deploying 900 devices.
  
• St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Florida going one-to-one with 2,200 devices.
  
• Rocketship Education in the Bay Area of California using 1,100 Chromebooks.
  

Unfortunately, Google likely chose to list the schools taking on large numbers of Chromebooks, so it’s unfair to say each school is adopting about a thousand devices. For all we know, some may be just rolling out a hundred or even less as a test run.

[SPM]

I wonder what the numbers are like for UK schools?

 

Google announces that 2,000 schools now use Chromebooks, up 100% in three months « The Next Web

 

I think in UK it is pretty minimal. I don't think there has been a big marketing push by Google so far. Another problem is that teachers in UK are computer ignorant for the most part, and look at computers only as tools to use in computer science classes or to teach for narrow low level technical certificates (eg. Word, Excel and typing skills, or AutoCAD drafting for beginners). In the US in the 1:1 roll-outs, teachers view Chromebooks as a communications and research tool for helping teach all subjects, not just computer science and low level technical skills - much the way that computers are viewed in university and higher education.

[Arthur]

Chromebook Pixel: A Concept ChromeOS Device with Ultra HD Touch Screen

 

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xxbwa5_new-chromebook-next-generation-concept-touch-for-everyone_tech

[psydii]

I don't think there has been a big marketing push by Google so far.

 

Speaking to the UK Chrome/Book PM(?) at BETT they are certainly taking the softly softly approach - they seem to want schools and colleges to come to them when they are ready, rather than rush in. This seems quite sensible. The Chrome Browser is the gateway drug ("try it, try it, use it, your personal data and apps follow you between devices! You'll love it" was pretty much the pitch), and then Google Apps. Once you're on that platform the chromebooks make sense. But until you are on the platform, you're likely to want what is familiar (read: Windows and Office).

 

I think with the jarring change of W8, Google Apps and Chrome Apps are going to see a big up tick this year.

 

 

Mind you we've been here before with netbooks.

[zag]

The interesting thing is netbooks have all but been discontinued due to their low cost.

 

There is a huge market for £200 devices in schools as netbooks showed, just needs someone to fill the market.

[SPM]

The interesting thing is netbooks have all but been discontinued due to their low cost.

 

There is a huge market for £200 devices in schools as netbooks showed, just needs someone to fill the market.

 

I don't think low cost in itself is the reason why netbooks were discontinued. My take on this is that Microsoft never really wanted netbooks, and the reason why it licensed Windows for netbooks was in order to prevent Linux from getting a toehold in the PC/laptop market. Microsoft's fear was that because customers actually liked Linux netbooks, there was a danger that customers would become familiar with Linux on the desktop, and Linux would take over a large chunk of the desktop market if customers were allowed to experience Linux preloaded PCs/laptops. Microsoft had to eliminate Linux as a competitor for PC space, and it did this by providing subsidies to OEMs to not sell/preload Linux. Microsoft did this by subsidising OEMs for not selling/preloading Linux - Linux may be free, which is quite cheap, but paying someone not to sell Linux is even cheaper. Microsoft offered advertising subsidies to OEMs for advertising Windows, but I suspect conditions attached to OEM contracts would mean that OEMs would lose this advertising subsidy if they advertised Linux netbooks - possibly including shop front advertising. Which is I suspect why OEMs at first shifted Linux netbooks to online sales even though they were selling well. The second thing Microsoft did was to subsidise Windows for netbooks to make preloaded Linux netbooks unviable for the OEMs. The thing about a subsidy though is that you have to get the money to pay for it from somewhere, and this would have to come from the Microsoft tax levied on other Microsoft users. Of course this would need to be done in a way so as not to undercut revenue from those other Windows users who are paying for the subsidies. I believe this is where the arbitary limits imposed by Microsoft on the number of processes that could run on the crippled Windows OS on netbooks and arbitary hardware restrictions on netbooks like CPU, screen size etc. comes in - they were there to prevent the subsidised Windows netbooks from cannibalising higher priced Windows devices which were required to be charged at a slightly higher licensing cost than otherwise to pay for anti-competitive subsidies to keep them from preloading Linux. In the end these measures to prevent Linux from getting a foothold were successful in eliminating Linux from getting a foothold in preloaded PC/laptop market, and keeping it out.

 

The reason why OEMs are dropping netbooks now is I suspect because Microsoft has now cut these subsidies for netbooks. Why would they do that? Simple - look at the sub $899 x86 based Windows 8 Pro tablets (ie. the non-ultrabook Windows 8 tablets). They cost between $500 and $650, are powered by dual core Atom Clover Trail CPUs, and have pathetic GPUs and 10" screens and 1-2GB RAM and 64GB SDD. In other words they are low end netbooks with touch added and the keyboard taken away, retailing for $500+. If OEMs are selling $279 Windows netbooks with the same specs with a 320GB HDD, then who on earth would pay $500 for the Windows 8 Atom netbook tablets? That is why Microsoft killed off netbooks now, just when Windows 8 Pro tablets were about to launch.

 

Google has actually brought in the new cheap Chromebooks for the mass market at the perfect time. The 1.1 GHz $199 Celeron processor in the Acer C7 Chromebook and its HD2000 GPU are at least twice as fast as Microsoft's $500-$600 tablets, and don't tell me that you don't need that speed to run typical tablet apps - because there are few Metro apps, and the only reason to buy a Windows tablet over an Android or iOS tablet is to run Windows apps. Windows apps running on hardware of low end netbook specs means painfully slow operation - which may be fine if you are paying netbook prices, but not for a $500 device.

[Arthur]

Microsoft's fear was that because customers actually liked Linux netbooks

I don't think MS were too worried (see quote below), but you are right that the key to Linux adoption was getting OEMs to ship it on new PCs (as Linus Torvalds once mentioned).

 

Our internal research has shown that the return of netbooks is higher than regular notebooks, but the main cause of that is Linux. People would love to pay $299 or $399 but they don’t know what they get until they open the box. They start playing around with Linux and start realizing that it’s not what they are used to. They don’t want to spend time to learn it so they bring it back to the store. The return rate is at least four times higher for Linux netbooks than Windows XP netbooks. (Source)

 

The interesting thing is netbooks have all but been discontinued due to their low cost.

Why buy a netbook when you could have an iPad instead?

 

Also, low cost usually means a lot of corners have been cut. Perhaps consumers were fed up with crappy hardware that wasn't much cheaper than regular £300 Windows laptops and with artificial restrictions imposed by Intel and Microsoft?

 

Even with Chromebooks, you have to pay a premium to get decent hardware. Compare the (£229) Series 3 and (£330) Series 5 Chromebooks. The latter has a significantly better screen, keyboard and trackpad, but costs £100 more. I would pay the extra, but a lot of people just look at the sticker price.

Edited February 16, 2013 by Arthur

[Arthur]

Google working on touch-screen Chromebooks for 2013 release

 

The Wall Street Journal reports that Google has developed Chrome OS laptops with touch-screens. According to the Journal's sources, the Chromebooks will go on sale later this year, though there aren't any details on which hardware manufacturers are working with Google. Last year the company started selling Chromebooks by Samsung and Acer directly through the Google Play Store. The rumoured Chromebook Pixel

 

A touchscreen Chromebook would likely require significant alterations to Chrome OS, which uses a desktop-style interface built around Google's Chrome browser and designed for a mouse and keyboard. The touch-screen laptops would mean Google offered two touch-based operating systems; it's unclear how the company would position the new products against existing Android tablets.