Operating Systems, Software, and The Web
The Classmate PCs are loaded with various educational software titles, and some of the big names in educational publishing – Lego, McGraw-Hill, for example – are partners in the endeavor. The Classmate PC also has a Classroom Management and Collaboration Application Suite that allows the computers in a classroom to be networked so that students can easily view their teacher’s screen, for example, or work with one another.
That all feels very standard when it comes to a school- and student-focused piece of equipment. The Chromebook, when it comes to both the OS and the software, feels quite different. It is, as Google points out, “nothing but Web,” and while that does open a lot of possibilities for taking advantage of online resources from traditional and non-traditional academic sources, it’s going to be a big leap for many schools.
Of course, for those that already utilize Google Apps for Education, the Chromebooks make a lot of sense. That same ease by which student accounts (access to Gmail, Docs, and the like) can be managed is now extended to their devices. Updating and upgrading will be far easier for administrators; no longer will every computer have to be rounded up in order to have new software installed.
But just as the Web-based system can be greatly liberatory here, the requirement that students have Internet access for a Chromebook could pose a problem, particularly for those without Internet connections at home. Google does say it plans to roll out support for offline Gmail and Google Docs over the summer, which seems like a baseline requirement for making Chromebooks viable.
And there are still many tools that students and teachers utilize that don’t yet have a Web app. Take Skype, for example, which has seen great adoption by teachers for linking their classrooms with others. Or take Google’s own popular Google Earth or Sketchup tools, neither of which can, as of yet, work in the Chrome OS.
These are the sorts of details that make the Chromebook feel not-quite-ready for primetime. But for schools that are weighing one-to-one laptop programs, there are really no perfect tools yet, as costs (for hardware, software, and IT support) still make the idea largely prohibitive for most schools.
Google has a lot of things right here: a Web-based, rental program, for example. Of course, the Classmate does too, as an heir to the idea of cheap and durable laptops of the One Laptop per Child movement (but, at the end of the day, still quite an expensive piece of equipment).
Looking at these two netbooks side-by-side, it’s clear that the costs of putting computers in every child’s hands is still quite an expensive proposition. But of course, the costs of not doing so are high as well.
Pages: 1 2
0 Responses
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.