Why We Choose Chromebooks
I was going through some emails I have from a listserv I subscribe to and I came across a conversation we had earlier this year about Chromebooks vs real computers (forgive my cheeky provocation). Below I have copied a message sent to the listserv that summarizes the struggle I see happening around our schools. I personally haven’t had to deal much with the chromebook vs PC purchasing quandry, mostly because we can’t afford any devices, full stop. I have been approached to participate in some investigations into Chromebooks but it’s really not a path I want to go down, for many reasons similar to what is written below.
Just to be clear - I’m not the author of the message below.
[ Executive summary: People believe the low selling price means the overall price will be cheaper, and they believe that equivalent software always exists on the ChromeOS platform. ]
I fought very hard to have a Windows, Linux, or Mac laptop as our “one to one" device, and gave very specific reasons including the use of standard physics teaching software such as Logger Pro, VPython, PhET applets, Physlets, and Easy Java Simulations. I also pointed out that our very considerable suite of data collection devices (LabQuests, we have about 45, plus a closet full of data collection hardware) simply cannot connect with Chromebooks, period, at all, and require a machine that can run Logger Pro, which would be Mac, Windows, and to a somewhat limited degree, Ubuntu Linux.
Initially, Tech and Admin were on the same page with me. At some point, someone did math and figured out that they could spend about $250,000 on Chromebooks, or a minimum of $350,000 on Windows laptops, or $800,000 on Mac laptops. They then started seriously evaluating the Chromebooks, and came to the conclusion that they would also reduce operational difficulty due to the cloud-based OS. This last part is somewhat true, since there is little difficulty in swapping someone to a new machine; it is simply a matter of wiping their old one and logging them in on a new one.
No one seriously considered the cost to teachers who can’t use the Chromebooks for the same tasks for which they use regular computers. I sure tried to make them consider this. Many people seemed to rely on an incorrect assumption that any task for which we use regular computers we could find an acceptable substitute on Chromebooks. That is demonstrably false, and likely will be for a long time yet. The only alternatives I find are incomplete substitutes at best. Yet the delusion persists. Apparently, skateboards can substitute for Boeing jets if you just wish hard enough.
A few departments were somehow immune to the thinking; the CAD and graphic design labs are set up with computers that run the software they need; in fact, the graphic design lab has new Macintosh computers. I’m not sure what the CAD lab has.
I managed to preserve my set of twelve old classroom desktop Windows computers, and I will continue to try to preserve those computers, even if I have to switch them to Ubuntu and maintain them myself. We’ve used them for VPython and Tracker Video Analysis this year. I use the Chromebooks for what I can; they are great for document distribution, communication, document research and writing, and if you want to manually transfer data or manually type very small data sets and use something like Plot.ly for data analysis.
I’ve had some experience with this last bit, as I’ve also tested out a suite of programs on Ubuntu on an older PC I grabbed from the recycling bin at my school. I could have had 9 computers for my classroom for useful activities. Unfortunately I couldn’t come up with the money for 9 monitors or 9 wireless networking cards.
I wonder if some of the newer low-cost Windows laptops will create a shift back to the PC world?