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This really is too bad. I think iPads are perfect for education, much better than chrome books

God no. Good for education, but with something that isn't a full OS, not even close to being perfect.
For my children I’d want a proper computer with all the options that they can really learn with. Seems you can do everything with an iPad except code, (unless it’s Swift).

I’m not saying the Chrome Book is perfect either BTW.
 
Well ya, chrome books are ****. I would expect nothing less from an educational institution. My school did the same thing and allegedly paid the same amount of money as it would cost to get iPad minis. Everyone hated them and they did not hold up to totally normal wear-and-tear. That's beside the whole "you can only use Google" part...

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God no. Good for education, but with something that isn't a full OS, not even close to being perfect.
For my children I’d want a proper computer with all the options that they can really learn with. Seems you can do everything with an iPad except code, (unless it’s Swift).

I’m not saying the Chrome Book is perfect either BTW.

Are you complaining about the iPad not running a desktop OS but not mentioning that a chrome book is basically just a browser? Just curious, I don't think I fully understood your comment.
 
Are chromebooks really cheaper?

Well ya, chrome books are ****. I would expect nothing less from an educational institution. My school did the same thing and allegedly paid the same amount of money as it would cost to get iPad minis. Everyone hated them and they did not hold up to totally normal wear-and-tear.

That's exactly what I was wondering. I know that my young son's ipad2 is still going strong after several years of use (and abuse), but how do these chromebooks hold up? Are they really cheaper if you factor in longevity of the device? And if they don't hold up to abuse and take a charge, etc. don't school district purchasers factor this huge variable into their purchase decision?

Just thinking out loud.

-iamthinking
 
It's about the services, not just the hardware. My daughter (8th grade) has a Chromebook from school and their program is very impressive. They use Google Docs and Drive extensively for writing, collaboration, getting/turning in homework, etc. It's all integrated with the curriculum, textbooks, etc. Security and lock-down is excellent too. For example, teachers can see every app or website that students are viewing during class - but only during those hours. I was surprised at how mature it all is for a first year pilot. Nothing like that exists for Apple as far as I know, and I doubt schools would want to depend on Pages and iCloud anyway.

Hmm why would they want to depend on Google docs and drive then? All those services are in the cloud just like pretty much everything Apple. The only reasons not to use Apple is price and the IT dept scared of all things Apple since the falling out from the 90's.

IMHO Apple needs to push more into colleges and universities. All our local colleges are starting to require new students to have macs or iPads before starting school. This has caused a ripple effect as many public and private schools are planning to do the same so students have an easier time transitioning from grade school to university.
 
This shouldn't come as a surprise. School districts cannot afford to pay the Apple tax.
But they surely can afford to sell themselves to the Google empire.

Chromebook are crap: subjective observation. However, they do have to deal with being completely worthless when there's no wifi available. They have to deal with inherent slowness of working over the Internet instead of locally. They're typically built very cheaply. They have strong but mostly useless CPUs because of these limitations.
 
A chromebook with google docs, drive and mail is much better than an Ipad when comparing price per performance. Chromebooks are great for the education market.
 
This.

$149 for a Chromebook or $499 for an iPad. I'd go with a Chromebook, too if I was buying 1,000+

Your quoting retail. I got gov issued PowerBook pro when I was in the Army and even back then we paided half price. I doubt any public school system would pay retail for either of those products.
 
A chromebook with google docs, drive and mail is much better than an Ipad when comparing price per performance. Chromebooks are great for the education market.

Hmm but you can get all of that on the iPad for free so I don't really see your point. Why would you limit yourself when you can have the best of both worlds in compatibly?
 
try disconnecting a tablet from the net and see what work you can get done on it. For school access , homework , notes , research etc it's perfect. Kids don't need to use apps (like a tablet can give you)as much as they need access to a brower. For that a chromebook is perfect.

I'm about to put my Chromebook on eBay. It's almost totally unused.

I like Google search, Gmail, Android etc. etc., but I simply don't understand a computer that is very nearly useless if it doesn't have an internet connection.

In my opinion, the Chromebook doesn't know what it wants to be. An Androidbook, however, I'd totally understand.

But equally, I don't really understand iPads/tablets either.
 
Kids do NOT Choose Devices

The students do NOT dictate devices purchased. I work for a VERY large school district. We have 75+ schools. We buy a ton of tech each year.

We tried to go with iPads, in fact we have 5,000 which I oversee. We now purchase ChromeBooks by the groves, because Apple has failed to deliver a reasonably manageable echo system in which to share iPads amongst students. The crap system Apple Gave us is, Apple Configurator. A huge disgusting mess of software with an awful workflow.

It takes weeks, days hours to get anything done with apps and setup with a classroom set of iPads. We have to re-do stuff over and over, AC crashes, corrupts codes, data bases fail.... etc. All this has to be done in conjunction with the school receiving the iPads.

However, Chromebooks are setup by us in our TS department, they are passed out and it takes 5 minutes for a student to login and use their stuff. They can log out and then then next student logs in no issues. iPads... I think not!

With iPads: (this is the abridged version there are 3X more steps)
You have to sync to a dedicated computer
Created a dedicated site Apple ID (hope no one jacks up the PW)
Use the online tool to buy bulk apps
Download codes
Import into Apple Config (hope codes don't corrupt)
touch trust on ever ****ing iPad
---- touch trust AGAIn on half the ****ing iPads
-------TOUCH TRUST A ****ing AAAGGAIN ON SOME OF THE IPDS... ****ING APPPLE (Trust never works right)
Then sync.

That is why ChromeBooks are taking over iPads... it is simple... Apple Failed.

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This shouldn't come as a surprise. School districts cannot afford to pay the Apple tax.

That does not make sense.
 
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Hmm but you can get all of that on the iPad for free so I don't really see your point. Why would you limit yourself when you can have the best of both worlds in compatibly?

Because it's cheaper.

But I think, I'm not sure on this, that you could get a decent windows laptop for the same price as an Ipad at the cost the schools and or municipalities pay for the 100s of devices they buy and for school I think Windows laptops are even better for school than Chromebooks.
 
Because it's cheaper.

But I think, I'm not sure on this, that you could get a decent windows laptop for the same price as an Ipad at the cost the schools and or municipalities pay for the 100s of devices they buy and for school I think Windows laptops are even better for school than Chromebooks.
They are more complex to support than the Chromebooks, this is one reason they are popular.
 
But they surely can afford to sell themselves to the Google empire.

Chromebook are crap: subjective observation. However, they do have to deal with being completely worthless when there's no wifi available. They have to deal with inherent slowness of working over the Internet instead of locally. They're typically built very cheaply. They have strong but mostly useless CPUs because of these limitations.

Pretty sure all of the schools purchasing Chromebooks factored wifi into the equation. It would be pretty silly to buy a wifi device and not have wifi available. The build quality of Chromebooks was suspect originally, but they have gotten much better. My daughter's school district chose Chromebooks over iPads. Their reasoning? Ability to impact more students within the budgetary constraints (more Chromebooks for more students) and the keyboard. There were other reasons but those two were top of the list. Educational tools and monitoring were a wash, so for every 1 iPad they didn't get, they could get 2 Chromebooks.

With the $200 Windows machines coming out, the iPad will have another player fighting for the education dollar.
 
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I'm not surprised

They're simple, they're cheap, they're easy to manage, and they can do basic tasks. That's really all that most schools need. They're like the Commodore 64 of today.
 
In my experience, there are two factors at work. One obviously is the price. Many school administrators are concerned with cost above everything.

The other factor is school IT departments which are often led by people who will avoid Apple at any cost. Apple needs to put more effort into school technical support if they want to maintain a lead in the classroom. Currently, if a school buys an an Apple device, they're on their own. I was hoping the IBM partnership would help fix this, but their alliance is still too new to judge.
Add to this another reason IT departments like to avoid Apple is central user administration is a complete and utter nightmare. AKA very little. Compare this to chromebooks which offer very good and easy central and remote administration control.

Apple in the enterprise world is poor at best and have a long LONG ways to go. They are great for consumers but poor for centralized IT departments.

Mix that in with there are certain user needs the chromebook just does better like for example the keyboard.

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But they surely can afford to sell themselves to the Google empire.

Chromebook are crap: subjective observation. However, they do have to deal with being completely worthless when there's no wifi available. They have to deal with inherent slowness of working over the Internet instead of locally. They're typically built very cheaply. They have strong but mostly useless CPUs because of these limitations.

well lets consider most schools now day have full wifi access so that is not an issue.
2. Most of the stuff they would do on the iPad would require internet access so that is not a huge loss.
3. Internet speeds are generally high enough to cover what they need to use it for any how.

So not a big deal on any of that.
 
Pretty sure all of the schools purchasing Chromebooks factored wifi into the equation. It would be pretty silly to buy a wifi device and not have wifi available. The build quality of Chromebooks was suspect originally, but they have gotten much better. My daughter's school district chose Chromebooks over iPads. Their reasoning? Ability to impact more students within the budgetary constraints (more Chromebooks for more students) and the keyboard. There were other reasons but those two were top of the list. Educational tools and monitoring were a wash, so for every 1 iPad they didn't get, they could get 2 Chromebooks.

With the $200 Windows machines coming out, the iPad will have another player fighting for the education dollar.
If those are not intended to be moved outside of schools' walls, then maybe. I am not that old yet never assume a school would buy computers "to put in students' backpacks", but rather tie them down in classes or dedicated computer rooms.

ChromeBook works when it offline. You can run all the app you want without online. You just need online when downloading apps.
How much is the local storage? Last time I checked Chromebooks had miserable mass storage and relied exclusively on connectivity to get anything done. Chrome OS wasn't the same as Android.
 
2. Kids will ALWAYS be one step ahead of us with technology. Always.

Hardly. I teach at a university. The students know how to work smartphones and once you get past those, things get hairy. I've noticed that since smartphones became ubiquitous that the students have become progressively more incompetent with computers.
 
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