Schools are going to buy a ton of these.

[Yr Blues]

I think they're going to get a lot of contracts from schools that will give them out to their students, baking them into their tuition.

 

[4sallypat]

Yes, our district is talking to our Apple Sales Engineers about buying 1000 of the Neos for staff/faculty.

As for the 14,000 students - we are going to wait to see how these hold up in the hands of employees.

Usually we get AppleCare+ thrown in for free at $499 price point which makes it a steal!

 

[JPack]

Schools, maybe. They still have a budget to adhere to and Chromebooks are still slightly cheaper on paper, but now the Neo is within throwing distance. It depends on how the schools weigh the numbers like support, resale value, access to more apps for better learning, etc.

Where this will really excel is districts where BYOD is an option or common for students. This will end up being the de facto computer for secondary school kids and much of college. Basically, those with just a little extra discretionary spending will choose this over a PC.

 

[raythompsontn]

I think they're going to get a lot of contracts from schools that will give them out to their students, baking them into their tuition.

Maybe. I am not so certain. I will explain.

The biggest advantage to the Chromebooks is Google Classroom. That is used exclusively the school system for my county.

The Chromebooks provided to every student by the county are probably less than $200.00 each per machine. The machines are, by any standard, very low quality in terms of screen quality and memory capacity.

What is impressive is the amount of abuse the Chromebooks take. The school also has an IT department that can quickly repair the Chromebooks.

All the students files are stored somewhere on Google servers. If a student loses a laptop, or the laptop is out of service, the student just signs onto Google Classroom on another machine and all the student's data is available.

Can a school district, especially in poorer rural areas, substantiate the additional cost for the NEO? Can the NEO access Google Classroom (I think so)? Could the NEO's be repaired as easily on-site as the Chromebooks? Is the NEO as durable as the Chromebook?

Lastly, there is only one sign on for the Chromebooks that access Google Classroom. That sign on is administered by the district. Can the NEOs be controlled the same way? There is a sign on to the Mac, then another sign on to Google Classroom. I know Apple has a method to centralize control of Mac Computers. Can the NEO participate and can the district afford cost, and the support personnel required?

Students could buy their own machines, but I don't see the district supporting that expense.

 

[raythompsontn]

access to more apps for better learning

In the Google Classroom world the only apps allowed are the ones provided by Google. And those apps are not truly apps, but web based solutions. Nothing like Pages, Numbers, etc. can be used.

 

[JPack]

In the Google Classroom world the only apps allowed are the ones provided by Google. And those apps are not truly apps, but web based solutions. Nothing like Pages, Numbers, etc. can be used.

Yes, I'm referring to the intangible benefits of a MacBook. A Chromebook obviously has lower cost on paper, but the Neo has intangible benefits like access to more apps and better build quality, which decision makers can use to justify better learning outcomes.

 

[4sallypat]

Maybe. I am not so certain. I will explain.

The biggest advantage to the Chromebooks is Google Classroom. That is used exclusively the school system for my county.

The Chromebooks provided to every student by the county are probably less than $200.00 each per machine. The machines are, by any standard, very low quality in terms of screen quality and memory capacity.

What is impressive is the amount of abuse the Chromebooks take. The school also has an IT department that can quickly repair the Chromebooks.

All the students files are stored somewhere on Google servers. If a student loses a laptop, or the laptop is out of service, the student just signs onto Google Classroom on another machine and all the student's data is available.

Can a school district, especially in poorer rural areas, substantiate the additional cost for the NEO? Can the NEO access Google Classroom (I think so)? Could the NEO's be repaired as easily on-site as the Chromebooks? Is the NEO as durable as the Chromebook?

Lastly, there is only one sign on for the Chromebooks that access Google Classroom. That sign on is administered by the district. Can the NEOs be controlled the same way? There is a sign on to the Mac, then another sign on to Google Classroom. I know Apple has a method to centralize control of Mac Computers. Can the NEO participate and can the district afford cost, and the support personnel required?

Students could buy their own machines, but I don't see the district supporting that expense.

I work as IT for a public K-12 school district and while you are correct about Google classroom, Chromebooks are not the only platform that can use it.

Our staff/faculty have Macbooks and they have been using Google Classroom to instruct our 14,000+ Chromebook students.

Quality of the current Chromebooks have increased from cheap $238 single core to multi core costing over $550 which includes breakage insurance and unlimited repair contracts.

Chromebooks are replaced out every 3-4 years while our staff/faculty Macbooks are replaced every 6-7 years.

We do not do the repairs in house as that violates our union rules so we ship them out for repair (HP, Lexicon, Worth Ave, etc).

Sign on by students and staff can be shared among devices (PC, Chromebook, Mac) because of our MDM enforcing multi user credentials and Google SSO which we leverage for across the board compatibility.

If we transition to all Macbook Neo - our MDM which is mated to Apple's DEP and ASM - would make control of apps and pushing out updates easier than our current Chromebooks using Google Admin.

With the Neo, we should see a much better longevity, performance, battery life as well as lower TCO.

 

[raythompsontn]

I'm referring to the intangible benefits of a MacBook

No doubt. The ability to use real applications like Pages, and Numbers, is a bonus.

But most students do nothing beyond the bare minimum. There are exceptions and what is telling is that these students have provided their own laptop.

which decision makers can use to justify better learning outcomes

Snicker. Yeh, the same decision makers who still have VCR's flashing 12:00. The same decision makers who were given iPads with meeting notes and computers to access during meetings. But still have pieces of paper and when viewed, the laptops are still on the log on screen.

I substitute at the local high school. It very much surprised me to see the level, lower than I expected, of the use of material on the Chromebooks. Spreadsheets are not used. Google Docs is used to write reports, which is mostly copy and paste from other sources.

Or better yet, the students open a shared Google doc, then write questions on tests, and someone will write an answer that the others can see. I told this to school administration and was told a Google shared doc was not against policy and therefore, until the school board issues a policy, nothing can be done.

I don't see the poorer districts getting the NEO. The only thing the school board will see is the cost. I think that members of the school board should be required to substitute in a classroom for three or four days a year as part of their responsibility.

 

[raythompsontn]

With the Neo, we should see a much better longevity, performance, battery life as well as lower TCO.

You must work for one of the higher budget school districts.

The district I know keeps the Chromebooks for the four years the student is in high school. The student gets the same machine in the year that they had last year. The machines are very much low end machines. I have seen some in bad shape, display barely hanging on, that still work.

With the Neo, we should see a much better longevity, performance, battery life as well as lower TCO.

Great. Can you convince the school board? I hope you are able.

 

[1rottenapple]

I work as IT for a public K-12 school district and while you are correct about Google classroom, Chromebooks are not the only platform that can use it.

Our staff/faculty have Macbooks and they have been using Google Classroom to instruct our 14,000+ Chromebook students.

Quality of the current Chromebooks have increased from cheap $238 single core to multi core costing over $550 which includes breakage insurance and unlimited repair contracts.

Chromebooks are replaced out every 3-4 years while our staff/faculty Macbooks are replaced every 6-7 years.

We do not do the repairs in house as that violates our union rules so we ship them out for repair (HP, Lexicon, Worth Ave, etc).

Sign on by students and staff can be shared among devices (PC, Chromebook, Mac) because of our MDM enforcing multi user credentials and Google SSO which we leverage for across the board compatibility.

If we transition to all Macbook Neo - our MDM which is mated to Apple's DEP and ASM - would make control of apps and pushing out updates easier than our current Chromebooks using Google Admin.

With the Neo, we should see a much better longevity, performance, battery life as well as lower TCO.

Wow I thought your a professional pilot I didnt know you have an other job. That’s so cool (being a pilot).

 

[IvyKing]

Sign on by students and staff can be shared among devices (PC, Chromebook, Mac) because of our MDM enforcing multi user credentials and Google SSO which we leverage for across the board compatibility.

If we transition to all Macbook Neo - our MDM which is mated to Apple's DEP and ASM - would make control of apps and pushing out updates easier than our current Chromebooks using Google Admin.

I had a feeling that MacOS could support centralized IT administration, glad to know my guess was right.

I'm curious about how the Keynote/Numbers/Pages suite will fit in an educational environment.

One complaint about the online references for these three products is that the references don't do much to give an overall view of how to use the software. A good guidebook will give a good idea of what the software can do and how it was intended to be used. An example of the latter was a 1987 Microsoft book on how to use the style sheets for Word for DOS, explaining how to create and use a style along with an explanation of why one would want to use a style sheet.

 

[4sallypat]

Wow I thought your a professional pilot I didnt know you have an other job. That’s so cool (being a pilot).

Nah, I am a recreational pilot (at least trying to be).

It's my bucket list item as I retire to become a senior citizen with a private pilot's license and my own turboprop plane to fly into remote areas of the country for fly fishing.

Luckily my career is ending on a good note - early retirement incentive, eligible for social security while it's still around, and a government pension.

 

[1rottenapple]

Nah, I am a recreational pilot (at least trying to be).

It's my bucket list item as I retire to become a senior citizen with a private pilot's license and my own turboprop plane to fly into remote areas of the country for fly fishing.

Luckily my career is ending on a good note - early retirement incentive, eligible for social security while it's still around, and a government pension.

Still that’s awesome!

 

[4sallypat]

I had a feeling that MacOS could support centralized IT administration, glad to know my guess was right.

I'm curious about how the Keynote/Numbers/Pages suite will fit in an educational environment.
....

Yes, for corporate organizations, governments, and schools - Apple integrated all purchases into Device Enrollment Program (DEP) which makes the purchases secured by Apple Business Manager or Apple School Manager.

Enables supervised mode over-the-air, enforces management profiles, and allows for zero-touch configuration for iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple TV.

We use a 3rd party MDM to control, OTA apps & restrictions and track all our Apple devices issued to students, staff and faculty.

If we lose a device, we merely lock it remotely and it can't be used nor wiped - essentially becomes a brick.

OTOH: Chromebooks which uses a clunky Google Admin to manage them, there is no way to lock down the device so if it gets stolen, it can be reimaged without enterprise enrollment and become someone's personal device.

 

[IvyKing]

OTOH: Chromebooks which uses a clunky Google Admin to manage them, there is no way to lock down the device so if it gets stolen, it can be reimaged without enterprise enrollment and become someone's personal device.

Which makes the Chromebooks a more desirable item to steal than a MacBook.