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A lot of the school districts in my area went with chromebook because of cost. Supplying just about every student with a learning device cost money. Google is offering $100 per chrome book. Apple isn't giving much of a discount on iPad. I think it was $400. The keyboard is very important for students. It's not fun typing up a 5 page essay on a iPad.

No, but I bet that paper was the most creative paper that Apple has written yet.
 
Sorry but that is a blatantly ignorant statement. Leonardo da Vinci as the archetypal Renaissance Man proves that art and engineering (science) benefit from the same source: the imagination.

Ain't that the truth, ESPECIALLY since Leo couldn't read. Preach it, Mum-Mum.
 
When you say "nothing has ever worked right" can you give some examples? Are you talking about apps, connectivity, charging, upgrades, what exactly?

He/she said NOTHING has worked right. You can't give an example of nothing, now can you? Jeez, you should have bought an iPad to learn good back in school.
 
Wow. I don't think Tim wants to get rid of libraries. I also don't think I can "experience" the life of John Adams, the design characteristics of a turbofan engine, or the theories of Carl Jung without a book.
Yes he does. There's an app for that: iBooks.
 
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When you say "nothing has ever worked right" can you give some examples? Are you talking about apps, connectivity, charging, upgrades, what exactly?
Yes. That's the simple answer. ;-)
Connectivity certainly - appleTV so unreliable it is no longer ever used, ruined far to many a lesson. Apps managed through an MDM solution don't install properly, I.e. Only 80% iPads download them (a different 80% each time) plus the fact you have to enter the appleID password TWICE for every app on every iPad. Never been able to get VPP working so have never managed to get any paid apps. Additionally iOS upgrades also took forever having to be done 1 by 1 on each iPads. All iPads have been wiped and restored with MDM solutions and Apple configuration setups twice by a proper education Apple company to no avail. iMacs less of an issue and issues with them more to do with 3rd party security things wiping any new apps installed.
I guess charging has never been a fault.
 
I would probably say the same when downplaying a disruptive technology that is overrunning our schools.

Spill proof on certain models and easily replaceable screens are another great factor on Chromebooks.
 
Tim, not every kid that wants an education can afford an apple product. Stop being elitist , and if you truely care about education, create an apple product that competes with the chrome book on pricing ! Otherwise don't rubbish a product as being a test product, and offering kids an education irrespective of the brand on it.

Not only that: I also don't see Apple hiring developers that do NOT have an academic education. According to Cook, these people have not learned about creativity and only studied to pass some tests. Something doesn't feel right here.
 
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It's sad that most people only care about the cheapest solution for education.

Especially when that solution is provided by the worlds largest advertising company. A company that will do anything to get you and your data into their system.
 
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I first saw a video clip of Tim's comments on my wide-screen... I noticed a slight green cast in the color but couldn't adjust it out.

Then I realized it's Tim, Green with Envy at just how useful, fast, fun a Google Chromebook is!

I absolutely love my 13" Google Chromebook!

But the big difference between Tim's views and mine is that I have no reason to bad mouth products that compete with Apple. And quite frankly Apple doesn't either. :D
 
Not only that: I also don't see Apple hiring developers that do NOT have an academic education. According to Cook, these people have not learned about creativity and only studied to pass some tests. Something doesn't feel right here.

Very true. I'd expect apple has very high standards for recruitment, which includes proficiency tests in relation to coding.
 
Why bother when you can have 2 or 3 chromebooks for the price of one ipad? The chromebooks are just as capable as learning machines, have keyboards and can use mice if needed. Tim Cook will probably never make an economy ipad or macbook for schools because there's no profit in it. Schools need to economize, and you don't do that by buying the most expensive tablet you can find. It's common sense and pragmatic.
Because the devices are not used the same. Even android devices are used differently because developers support them differently. The direction Apple pushes makes iPads an evolution in teaching. Using a chrome book is just replacing the useless PCs that have been tried for years. It's not about cheap devices. The cheapest device is none. Then you don't need a support staff that will be working overtime when you race to the bottom on price, because you get what you pay for. Hell you can skip wifi to. Just have a dial up connection and a fax machine. Chrome books are not an improvement, they just represent the ceding of children's personal information to google and making them subject to Googles relatively common but rarely talked about mass outages.

And yes, they are already being sued by a group from a school district where the vowed they were no collecting data on the kids but were caught doing it anyway thinking no-one was smart enough to catch them.
 
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More like creates a void since they are an empty shell.

If that were the case, chromebooks wouldn't be as popular as they are now would they.

Apple has a one size fits many philosophy in some respects. Chromebooks and the likes address specific needs.

You don't need to spend $799+ on a MacBook if a $150 device can get the job done.
 
Cook's right about the overemphasis on tests, but that's just a diversion from his argument against Chromebooks. If he truly believes the reason why schools are choosing Chromebooks over iPads and Macs is due to testing, he's ignorant. Chromebooks are cheap, durable, and super reliable. I use a Chromebook all the time at home (and not to take tests!) and it quickly proved to live up to the old Apple mantra "It just works." THAT is why schools are choosing Chromebooks.
 
I have a chromebook myself and I like it a lot, but when it comes to the education market Tim is right. I work in a school district that recently gave every high school student a windows laptop. The only way I ever see them used is when their math or science teacher assigns homework online. It all just seems like a very expensive way to marginally improve education.

Yeah I have to agree. There is not currently a good way to use this Tech. I installed countless lab carts and in room labs a decade ago and that is exactly how they were used then. This is a very big hole in education chain. I suspect one reason it is far harder to test a student on can they think there way out of this issue vs can they check the right box on the online quiz or bubble on there scantron. One day I think Tim will be proven right. The education you are getting now was designed before there was a glimmer of what a computer might even be. I will say I loved working in education but they desperately need a core values change that they are legally not allowed to make at least in my state.
 
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He's trying to distort reality very hard. Never will acknowledge his mistakes.

This could be easily said a hundred years ago: "In a world where you’ve got all the information you’ve got right here,” Cook gestured to my Encyclopaedia Britannica, “your ability to memorize what year a war was won and all this kind of stuff isn’t very relevant.”

Tests can't replace proper education but creativity without any tests can't do it either. There're Americans in 2015 who believe that Martian movie is based on a true story. Probably they didn't learn dates or anything like that in school, hoping that iPhone one day will get them "all the information".
 
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Tim, in his typical slow speaking style, has dumbed down a very important point that could use further elucidation -- maybe more than can be done in this forum. There are things where rote learning approaches are necessary and the most efficient. In sports, for example we practice over and over to get what is referred to as muscle memory. Of course this is only one part of what is needed and any system that relies solely on rote learning will be deficient. Creativity is important in that it allows the mind to wander and wonder. This is less efficient but can produce unexpectedly positive results. Remove the rote acquired knowledge and it becomes less predictable or efficient. Bottom line is that we need to memorize things like our multiplication tables (which so few seem to be capable of these days); we need to understand the principles involved in things; we need to understand the history of things so we know what has been tried, what has succeeded, what has failed and why. With all of this, we need to allow creativity to flourish; without all this, I would argue that creativity diminishes.
 
Creativity is the future. Because we won't need bridges in the future... Just a bunch of finger paintings and poems.
I work in construction. Most of the guys building bridges barely made it through high school and half don't even speak english which is what everything is written in on the plans.
In my line of work you have to have creativity as well as smarts to design a DWV system that will work alongside all the Ducting and electrical lines running through a building. Testing doesn't help any of that.
 
Chromebooks sell well -- exceptionally well. well beyond their forecast volumes, and mostly to education.

It's not about making cheap computers just to be cheap, either. It's about toeing the fine line between affordability and customer satisfaction. The Net Promoter Score is used by the big companies to see how well their products fare in terms of user experience, what the detractors to the experience are (i.e. battery life not as long as advertised), and what the promoters are (i.e. touch screen extremely responsive), and so on.

Apple, btw, absolutely leads in NPS in the consumer space (with Lenovo breathing down their neck). But they have zero presence in the low-cost space. That's where Chromebooks come in.
 
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Or, you could just get an Otterbox. I personally know at least 3 sets of parents who use an Otterbox on an iPad and let the children use it. Seems to work very well, and the kids don't have to be stuck on some crappy Chromebook.

There's no way I'd let my future kids suffer on a Chromebook. Would spend the extra $100-$200 in getting a cheap full Windows laptop. At least they will know how to use something actually useful.

Well, I wouldn't say suffer. Most of my kid's school classes use interactive website where teachers can keep a watch on student's progress from K-middle school. Chromebook is perfect for that and no virus and crap to take care of. If it's high school and higher education, you'd want a mac/pc depending on your major.

In web development, I know many developers use chromebooks because chrome's web developer tools are really good. It's cheap and developers can install linux on it if they want. So Chrombooks serves a purpose.

For the chrombook pixel, Google basically developed it for internal employee use, they simply opens it up for outside purchases if the public wants it.
 
Well as the head of IT in a primary school (OK, that's a grad title, we're such a small school we only have 2 teachers) I have to say I have never been unimpressed with Apple until using it in education. We planned to be fully apple with every child having an iPad, started with 30 iPads, 2 iMacs and 4 MacBook airs, 2 Apple TVs with a Mac server and nothing has ever worked right. I've wasted SO much time trying to get things to work and 3 years down the line we are now about to switch to google services and chrome books as Apple just don't support education well at all. It's shocking actually. So many obvious features not there and so much stuff that should work just simple won't. Or will for only 80% of devices. Awful awful awful.
As a private customer however, I love Apple products and have tons and will continue to get them, but for education? No way.

Oh, and we are a free school, exceptionally creative and hate tests. I also know of another nearby free school massively larger (primary and secondary) who also have similar issues its Apple.
Sounds more like the school needs a new head of IT.
 
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I generally like Cook. As a CEO, he's turned making huge profits into an art form. That's why this BS he's pushing about education is so disappointing. I understand he's doing his job of putting Apple in the best light. But denigrating Chromebooks as "test machines" is a disingenuous ploy to avoid the truth about iPads and education. Creativity is not the answer to education. It's one part; just as testing plays a part. So does nutrition and physical fitness. Most of all, good teachers and administration. Educating is multifaceted process. A singular focus on one facet, be it creativity or testing, is a recipe for failure. Even if creativity was the only answer, the iPad isn't the "be all, end all" of creativity. Last I checked, creativity didn't start and stop with Apple. It's pretty simple to me. Chromebooks surpassed iPads in education because of a combination of cost, keyboard, and to the dismay of some in this thread, capability. Also, Google actually make Chrome for Education a priority.
 
Oh, and we are a free school, exceptionally creative and hate tests. I also know of another nearby free school massively larger (primary and secondary) who also have similar issues its Apple.

Nope. Not possible. School can't be free to its students. My politicians told me so.
(to the sound of Thos. Jefferson rolling over)
 
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