- The size and weight of this is perfect for kids! The iPad is great, but its (this Chrome Book is anti-apostrophe! Ack!) either too small (without the case) or too clunky (with the case). This doesnt (gonna scream!) seem to be much heavier than an iPad and it has a much larger screen. Speaking of screens...
- The screen does not have that annoying iPad glare! No matter where we sat in my classroom either the lights or the sunlight made the iPad screens difficult to see on most days. Most of the kids had broken their kickstand off the back of the iPad by the time they got to sixth grade, so they all ended up awkwardly finding ways to support the screen while they typed. It was a mess! Finally...
- The keyboard! My kids begged me for keyboards to go with their iPads every time we did a project, but we only had a couple sets of keyboard in the whole school! We would hoard them for a few weeks, but inevitably another class would need them, and we would have to give them up. Chrome Book solves this problem with its built in keyboard.
If this was the 1:1 device that the kids had, I would be pretty happy. It allows them to do everything we do on our iPads or laptops or desktops, but it has some built in conveniences that would totally rock! I am glad I had a chance to use it. Now I will go back to my laptop:)
I didn't even notice that there is no glare! Great observation. I am interested in why you prefer your laptop. I agree that I think it is a good 1:1 devise. My son, who is now going into sixth grade, has had a school provided iPad since fourth grade. He has a wireless keyboard, but rarely uses it. He has become adept at typing on the iPad. I am going to have him test out the Chromebook and see if which devise he would prefer. I assume he is going to go with the iPad due to the touch screen feature. If that could be added to the Chromebook, it would be great!
ReplyDeleteI had to Google the apostrophe issue because it was driving me crazy! It ended up being a good learning experience for me (viewing problems as challenges!) but was incredibly frustrating to begin with. I agree 100% with your three reasons for using the Chromebooks in the classroom and also with your point about not giving up my laptop for this (I wrote about that as well). The iPad keyboard issue was in my top five technology frustrations this year - maybe even top two most days! I would also add that it seems to be hardier than the iPads, especially those ridiculous kickstands, and would solve the problem of kids having to prop their devices on stacks of books that would inevitably get knocked over and cause a much-larger-than-necessary distraction.
ReplyDeleteThe apostrophe problem may be that the keyboard is set to international- settings->show advanced settings->languages ->US keyboard.
ReplyDeleteGood news, the kids are getting new cases in 7-8 and hopefully the kickstand breaking off won't be a problem.