{"id":982,"date":"2013-02-17T13:18:32","date_gmt":"2013-02-17T13:18:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mrreddy.com\/blog\/?p=982"},"modified":"2024-10-12T14:24:50","modified_gmt":"2024-10-12T14:24:50","slug":"chromebooks-or-ipads-for-my-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mrreddy.com\/blog\/2013\/02\/chromebooks-or-ipads-for-my-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Chromebooks or iPads for my students?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mrreddy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/chromebookvsipad.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mrreddy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/chromebookvsipad.png\" alt=\"chromebookvsipad\" width=\"600\" height=\"230\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-983\" srcset=\"http:\/\/mrreddy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/chromebookvsipad.png 600w, http:\/\/mrreddy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/chromebookvsipad-300x115.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a>Let&#8217;s get this out of the way up front. I&#8217;m brand agnostic. I use Microsoft, Apple and Google products every day. I enjoy using their hardware and their software for professional and for personal purposes. <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This is not an Apple vs Google debate.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This is about technology in the classroom that is fit for purpose.<\/p>\n<p>Assuming that money is a limiting factor and I can only choose one type of device for my students to use in school, I would choose the Chromebook every time. Here are my reasons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Chromebooks boot up and awake from hibernation just as quickly as iPads &#8211; so there&#8217;s no learning time lost.<\/li>\n<li>The Chromebooks&#8217; battery last longer for the same intensity of usage because the Chrome OS is not working as hard as iOS.<\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s easier to manage a class set of Chromebooks in terms of device and user management because Google have got further with the development of the administrator&#8217;s control panel. Less hassle for the end user is what it&#8217;s all about. <\/li>\n<li>The integration of Google Drive, YouTube, Picasa and Gmail is way superior on the Chromebook. Each of those tools has a powerful place in the classroom, especially when they&#8217;re at your fingertips.<\/li>\n<li>Students can customise the Chromebooks, which goes a long way to pupils feeling ownership over the devices. Since customisation is just a matter of of each user&#8217;s profile settings, you don&#8217;t need to worry about students violating IT policy or the smooth management of the machines.<\/li>\n<li>Chromebooks come with a keyboard, which means we can do more things more quickly.<\/li>\n<li>Chromebooks last longer for various reasons &#8211; their processors are working less hard, the screen is working less hard and they&#8217;re less prone to being dropped or scratched. The ugly truth is that a lot of school iPads are becoming faulty before 12 months is up.<\/li>\n<li>Chromebooks are cheaper, as are the charging trollies.<\/li>\n<li>Workflows are less complicated &#8211; no need for all that DropBox business.<\/li>\n<li>Chromebooks have a built-in SD card reader so if you do want to use an external camera or copy things off the device, it&#8217;s very straightforward.<\/li>\n<li>Websites that still use Flash are not off-limits on the Chromebook in the way they are on the iPad.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Touch<\/strong><br \/>\nThere&#8217;s no getting away from the awesome intuitiveness of touchscreens and this is the iPad&#8217;s trump card. Some things are just better learned through touch, especially some parts of maths and science. Apps like <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/app\/st-math-school-version\/id550846820?mt=8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ST Math*<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/gb\/app\/learn-maths-with-beluga\/id594402201?mt=8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Learn Maths with Beluga<\/a> harness the touch element perfectly and reach parts of the brain that the eye and mouse can&#8217;t get to. With a Geogebra app on the horizon and perhaps an Autograph one too, the case for &#8216;going iPad&#8217; is building up.<\/p>\n<p>* Requires a school license<\/p>\n<p><strong>Verdict<\/strong><br \/>\nThe touch feature of the iPad, though awesome, is only leveraged by a handful of great apps. So for all the reasons I&#8217;ve listed above, Chromebooks are the ideal device for my classroom. <\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re not in a position to have one device per student, Chromebooks are an even better option as having multiple users per machine is much easier to manage. <\/p>\n<p>It doesn&#8217;t mean to say Chromebooks are ideal all over the place &#8211; I wouldn&#8217;t use a Chromebook for planning lessons or making school resources but then I wouldn&#8217;t use an iPad for that either. It&#8217;s about selecting the right tool for the job and after 6 months of daily Chromebook usage in the classroom, I&#8217;m confident that we&#8217;re using the right one.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/chrome.blogspot.co.uk\/2013\/02\/the-chromebook-pixel-for-whats-next.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-3aRqyhNsfkU\/USZgcEIX9II\/AAAAAAAAAuw\/U8ScLDBrMIs\/s400\/two_arrows_2.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"134\" class=\"alignright\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Update 21st Feb 2013 &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/chrome.blogspot.co.uk\/2013\/02\/the-chromebook-pixel-for-whats-next.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Chromebook Pixel<\/a><\/strong><br \/>\nToday, Google announced the Chromebook Pixel, a touch-screen version of the Chromebook, was going on sale. It&#8217;s aimed at the personal computer market rather than education, which has pushed the launch price way out of the realms of a school bulk purchase. <\/p>\n<p>That said, the technology would be a gamechanger in so many classrooms. It&#8217;s the dream combination of seamless Google Apps, touchscreen, Flash and instant-on that has me licking my lips. <\/p>\n<p>Hey Google! If you&#8217;re listening, me and my pupils&#8230;we&#8217;re your road-test guys, ok?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related articles<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/mrreddy.com\/blog\/2013\/02\/ten-tips-for-great-chromebook-routines\/\" title=\"Ten Tips for Great Chromebook Routines\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ten Tips for Great Chromebook Routines<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/mrreddy.com\/blog\/2012\/10\/chromebooks-are-not-just-for-christmas\/\" title=\"Chromebooks are not just for Christmas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chromebooks are not just for Christmas<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/mrreddy.com\/blog\/2012\/11\/project-24-getting-off-to-a-good-start-with-chrometime-culture\/\" title=\"Project 24: Getting off to a good start with Chrometime culture\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Project 24: Getting off to a good start with Chrometime culture<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Other people&#8217;s blogs<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/chromebooktrial.blogspot.co.uk\/2012\/11\/so-which-is-better-ipad-or-chromebook.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">So Which Is Better, iPad or Chromebook?<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/bhshelpdesk.com\/2012\/12\/18\/the-new-chromebook-v-the-ipad\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The new Chromebook v. The iPad<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let&#8217;s get this out of the way up front. I&#8217;m brand agnostic. I use Microsoft, Apple and Google products every day. I enjoy using their hardware and their software for professional and for personal purposes. This is not an Apple&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,6,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blended-learning","category-opinion","category-project24"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mrreddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mrreddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mrreddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mrreddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mrreddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=982"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"http:\/\/mrreddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2342,"href":"http:\/\/mrreddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982\/revisions\/2342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mrreddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mrreddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mrreddy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}