We’re curious about the Chromebook. Check out specs for a few:
Chromebooks are less expensive than many comparable devices, they have a full-day battery life, they’re easier to navigate, and they’re tops for the combination of security and sharing that matters so much for classroom use. They don’t have any problems with Flash — and education is one place where Flash belongs, for interactive websites and learning games. They’re faster than laptops, so you don’t have that 10 minute pause while everyone gets booted up, and they’re easier on the eyes than the typical laptop, especially for extended use.You can also configure the Chromebooks for convenience and security.
Chromebooks are designed for the web. That makes it great for those of us who are using Google Docs and other online applications. Cloud storage is a big help, too. But you’re not running Windows, you can’t choose a different browser (except virtually, and there’s too little data at the moment to say whether or not that’s a problem), and it’s not designed for offline use. That doesn’t mean that you can’t use it offline, but that’s not its strength (and, again, it’s early days to say how that’ll work).
For those of us who teach with online applications, this looks extremely promising. Any experienced users out there?
The most important part about this is that there is no hard drive. Nothing to break and nothing to overheat. It’s perfect for classrooms if there is some way to hook them into an encrypted network.
A very important point. That sounds ideal for schools. I like the fact that you can set up the homepage for all the devices from a central web space.
I hear that the security for chromebooks rocks. Why do they have to be on an encrypted network? Can it just be the normal school network?