Martin Spriggs

This past week Apple introduced electronic textbooks through their iBook store and available in the iTunes University (iTunes U). iTunes U had previously been available only to higher education institutions. It is now available for K-12.. Also a part of the announcement was the introduction of a new iBook / Textbook authoring tool called iBook Author. With textbook publishers like Pearson “signed up” to populate the offerings, Apple is getting serious about getting electronic textbooks in the classroom.

Over the last day or so I’ve been using the iBook Author application to convert an ebook I wrote on church websites. I am fairly impressed with the tool and will blog a review of it in the near future. There is great potential for paper textbooks to be replaced with these very interactive and engaging products. Almost makes me want to go back to school.

Those of you that follow this blog know that I recently finished a series on Google Chromebooks in the classroom. So if an elementary school administrator is looking to “go digital” do you go with Chromebooks or iPads? By the way, iBook textbooks can only be used on iPads. Right now I’d have to lean toward Chromebooks for the following five reasons:

1. Chromebooks can be shared, while iPads are meant to be owned and operated by one student. I suppose you could share an iPad but the students couldn’t take their own notes, do anything customized for themselves or store documents/homework locally. One of the Chromebooks greatest strength is any student could pick up any Chromebook, login and start working. Since Google Apps is cloud based all documents, etc. are not stored on the local device…making the device just a vehicle to get at cloud based content.

2. iPads have limited storage. If you put five 2Gb textbooks on one (depending on the version of the iPad), you’ve used over half the available space. Chromebooks aren’t meant to have onboard storage, thus everything needs to be in the cloud. I think a smarter model for textbooks rather than chained to a device.

3. IPads are expensive. The lowest price model currently costs $499. To ask each child to own one at the elementary or even high school level is a tough sell. Chromebooks come with a monthly fee ($20/month) a school or parent can pay over time, and then if desired “own” the device after three years. Schools could do the same with iPads and cover the initial cost, but that is a large capital cost for most schools.

4. Google Apps have an excellent management console which allows very granular control over each device. iPads aren’t set up that way. Each has to be individually managed and don’t provide a lot of tools that allow them to be locked down.

5. Google Apps provides an ecosystem of Docs, Email, Groups, Sites, etc. that a classroom can use to provide needed services for homework submission, collaboration, and communications. The iPad environment can offer some services like that, but not nearly as cohesive or seamless.

Having said all that I do have to say that the interactive textbook experience offered by iBooks has great possibilities. What is available on Chromebooks right now isn’t as advanced. However, since the Chromebook relies on the web, any publisher or person who would want to create one could.

It should be interesting to watch how all this shakes out.

Was just relaxing on the couch basking in the glow of the San Francisco 49ers’ win over New Orleans (I’m a longtime Niner fan), and flipped on the Denver Broncos vs. the New England Patriots. I’m rooting for Denver not so much because I like the Broncos, but have been following the career of Tim Tebow — a very public Christian who has been heavily criticized for being so forthcoming about it. It was probably no accident then that Focus On The Family aired a beautifully done commercial simply sharing the words of John 3:16. You can see it below. Wow. Nicely done. Goes to show that you don’t need anything more than the word of God. Truly a means of grace. Precious!

John 3:16 Commercial

Yesterday I wrote about one of my favorite tools for getting stuff out of my head and into a trusted system to which I could turn when I need to remember or find something from the recent or distant past – Evernote. Today comes the other half of the technological brain extender I use almost everyday — Diigo. The best way to describe Diigo an online social bookmarking tool that lets you “annotate” the web.

“Oh for the simpler times and the simpler ways.” Have you ever said that? I know that if I haven’t said it, I’ve thought it. I know in the past I’ve heard my parents and grandparents say it. It really is a complex thought. What is it about the past that makes us think things were simpler? Speaking only for myself I know that before email, instant messaging, voice mail, video conferencing and the like, the only communication tools I had were writing letters and an occasional phone call — if it wasn’t long distance because “that was expensive.” What that also mean for those who lived in “simpler” times was that you had fewer “inputs.” Fewer things coming into your life at a moments notice that would cause you to have to make a decision. Today we have hundreds of inputs coming in to our lives everyday. Phone, email, voice mail, etc. In the old days you’d have maybe a letter or two a day, maybe a phone call and perhaps somebody stopping by the front door.

I am not saying that it was simpler before because we were less busy. There has always been plenty to do. What I am saying is that we spend more of our time than ever before processing many more inputs than we ever had to before…and unfortunately most of us aren’t well equipped to handle the increased load. Chances are you inbox is full, you have unreturned voice mails — or you are waiting on others to return your call or email — and you have long since given up trying to deal with all those inputs. Now a lot of that “stuff” as Solomon would call it, is meaningless. But, whether you know it or not, it still is a cause of stress. Our brains want to do everything, at the same time, and when we can’t it’s hard for us to be comfortable with that.

For me however I’ve found some assistance through technological tools that help me deal with those inputs. Those that follow my blog know that I try to use the productivity methodology called GTD or “Getting Things Done.” One of the tenants of that approach is to get everything off your brain and into a trusted system. I use Microsoft Outlook for a lot of that. But another tool that I find I spend a lot of time in is Evernote. I like it because it allows me to “extend my brain.” This brain extender allows me to save every thought, piece of content, etc. that I believe I might need to retrieve at some point in the future. It could be a blog post, meeting notes, restaurant review, voice memo to myself, task list item, an email from somebody, an idea, an official document, and the list goes on.

Evernote has been around for some time, but recently there was an excellent article in Inc. magazine describing its journey to the top of the productivity system heap. It’s worth a read: http://www.inc.com/magazine/201112/evernote-2011-company-of-the-year.html. There are three things I like best about Evernote:

1. It is simple to use. Just open a new note and start typing. Or email something to it. Or cut and paste something. Or click the record button (either on the desktop app or mobile phone app) and say something. It can store pictures, documents, etc. usually with just the click of a button. It is just plain simple to use.
2. It indexing everything making it very easy to find anything you’ve stored. Upload a PDF and it will scan it and allow you to search for any word in the doc. Even more impressive is it’s ability to scan text in a picture. So take a picture of a receipt, upload it and you’ll be able to search for text in the image. It really works.
3. It’s all in the cloud AND on your computer/phone. Evernote can be configured to work locally (i.e. without Internet) and in the cloud and everything stays in sync. So no matter what your setup — mobile phone, iPad, Mac, PC, or other — chances are you will have access to all your stuff whether you have Internet or not at the time.

Evernote has a free version that is fully functional (except for the ability to scan PDFs for indexing). Although if you begin to use it store all your stuff, as I do, you will want to go for the Premium version which runs an affordable $45/year. Here is the info on what Premium gives you: http://www.evernote.com/about/premium/.

Today, if I need to find something or remember something I turn to Evernote and it will likely be there. That helps extend my brain and can assure it “hey, I’ve got that covered.”

This is the 7th installment of my series on Chromebooks For The Classroom. So far I have covered almost everything but the actually computer hardware that the Chrome Operating System runs on. There are really only two choices right now, one from Asus and the other made by Samsung. The one reviewed here is the Samsung Chromebook Series 5 Arctic White WiFi.

First the specs:

• Processor: CPU Intel® ATOM Processor N570
• Speed: 1.66Ghz
• Memory: Standard System Memory 2GB
• Memory Type: DDR3
• Maximum System Memory Onboard: 2GB
• Display Size: 12.1″
• Display Type: LED (WXGA)
• Resolution: 1280×800
• Matt/Gloss: Non-Gloss
• Aspect Ratio: 16:10
• Speaker: Stereo Speaker
• Web Camera: Yes
• Internal Mic: Yes
• Storage: HDD 16GB SSD (mSATA)
• Connectivity: WirelessLAN 802.11 b/g/n
• I/O Ports
• VGA: VGA via dongle adapter
• Headphone Out: Yes
• USB Ports (Total): 2
• Multi Card Slot: 4-in-1 Memory Card Reader that supports SD / SDHC / SDXC / MMC
• Input: Track Point Touch Pad
• Touch Pad:  Buttonless type, Gesture Support
• Keyboard: Size Full-size (island style)
• Battery Hour Life: Up to 8.5 hrs
• Dimensions: (W x H x D) 11.6″ x .8″ x 8.6″

Nothing spectacular here. However, the test of any configuration is how well the operating systems performs on the hardware. And in my testing the OS/Hardware combination is a good match. You have plenty of ways to get data into and out of the system including 2 USB ports, and a SD card slot. You also have a speedy Solid State hard drive that has 16 GB of RAM available for users. You won’t want to use this as permanent storage, but it can serve to hold data for short periods of time until you can archive it to something more permanent. Because the components are “easy on the battery” the Chromebook can last for over 8 hours before it needs its battery recharged. You also have no need for any serious fan in the system as the Chromebook doesn’t get very warm at all. Another side benefit is that is is whisper quiet. Perfect for the classroom.

One big advantage this hardware has over most netbooks is the full size keyboard. I have rather wide hands and fat fingers. I find it very comfortable to type. The keys are very responsive. You will notice that there are no function keys…remember you only need keys that a browser would support. In there place are useful keys that a browser would use like forward and back keys, refresh, full screen, brightness and volume keys. And, oh yeah, there is no CAPS LOCK. Thank you Samsung. A key that should never have been invented. In its place is a search key. Nice.

The screen is a nice size with acceptable viewing angles. And a webcam sits at the top. It’s not of super quality, but it will do for most situations.

There are a couple of semi-negatives. One is the onboard audio speakers. Very tinny and not loud enough to be useful. I say semi-negative because rarely in the classroom would you want a student to use the speakers. Each student can plug in headphones. Another negative is there is no delete key, only backspace. Unfortunately they took their cue from Apple which doesn’t include a delete key either. You have to press the Alt-Backspace key combo to delete characters after the insertion cursor. You’d be surprise how many times a pc users might like to use that missing delete key.

The overall case design is attractive, and even though its plastic, it doesn’t feel cheap. The unit is very light…it seems lighter than my Macbook Air…and that’s light. I can’t vouch for its durability however. Since the product is so new, only time will tell. The good news is that all Chromebooks come with a 3 year replacement warranty. All in all I think the hardware is well suited for student use.

So far in this series on Chromebooks I have addressed setup, management, features, and even an onsite visit of a WELS Elementary School classroom using Chromebooks. However, the elephant in the room for many schools is going to be cost. I could have started there, but I wanted to evaluate the solution first before making a judgement call on value based on the price tag. I think we are ready to do that now.

Here are the facts and figures…

Chromebooks (either the Acer or Samsung models) are purchased directly from Google. There are currently two ways to purchase them: 1) A three year “lease”, or 2) An upfront purchase of the Chromebook and monthly subscription charges.

Google started with only one pricing model — as a subscription service directly to education customers, for $20 per month. Chromebook subscriptions extend for three years. After that period, customers own the Chromebooks; they can also choose to renew their subscription and receive new hardware. There is a 3G version for a little more a month, but I can’t think of a good reason to go with that option as it only provides 100megs of bandwidth per month. In a classroom setting, or even at home, they are going to need to be on wifi to be useful.

Google has recently decided to offer a second option which allows customers to buy the Chromebooks up front. The WiFi models sell for $449 and 3G models for $519. For educational customers who want to receive continued support on their Chromebooks as well as access to the administration console, Google is offering support contracts for $5 per month one year after the notebook has been purchased (i.e. years two and three).

So doing the math, option one (the three year lease approach) would cost $720 over the three years. Option two (the pay up front with monthly support fee of $5 after the first year) would cost $569. Either options provides the exact same computer, support and admin console functionality. The difference is the schools ability to front the money or spread out the cost over three years. It should be noted you can’t buy any fewer than 10 units at a time.

There are any number of funding options that come to mind…

1. Budget the needed funds. One trade off that might be possible is the money necessary to build and/or support a computer lab. As you do your budgeting, make sure you try to calculate the total cost of each solution. With a traditional computer lab you will have maintenance, software, replacement parts, keyboards, etc. Don’t forget to evaluate the potential savings with an online curriculum versus traditional textbooks as well. The Chromebooks have the books themselves and any fees you might incur for web app that isn’t free. In my review however, there aren’t too many of those. But you must also assess your wireless network and bandwidth, as it may not be able to handle the addition of classrooms full of Chromebooks.
2. Find a donor or donors. There may be individuals or families in your school/church with a passion for education and the technology that supports it. Grace Lutheran in Oshkosh had a large gift they used for their purchase. Be sure you understand the consequences of using one time money for an ongoing project however. You will need to continue to support the initiative that you have started.
3. Institute a technology fee. Many schools currently have a technology fee in place that parents pay as part of their tuition or school fees. The cost can be included in that, or at least a part of it with the school budget subsidizing a portion. In this scenario, you may want to consider if the students will be able to keep the Chromebook after the three years are up.
4. Fundraising by students or PTA organization. Some schools hold fundraising activities for purchases like this. There are many programs that could be used. The challenge with fundraising is that there will be constant pressure to raise funds each time new books are needed. You also then are implying that this is an “outside the budget” expense, which I believe is at odds with the place of these devices in a schools educational strategy and approach.

There are many other creative approaches to funding I’m sure, but from my perspective the best approach is to figure out a way to include it in your annual budget. If the school is committed to the tool and believes it to be an important part of the educational process, then it needs to be treated as such. Once begun the program needs to be supported in successive years. Chromebooks for the classroom should not be treated as a nice-to-have which can be pulled from the budget if funding is running lean. Either it is worth doing or not.

So there are a number of considerations when evaluating value versus cost and every situation is going to be a bit different. If you believe however that the Chromebook solution is worth implimenting, then do a thorough analysis of the total cost of all options. You may determine that a phased in a approach makes sense, or waiting a year or two until funds can be secured. Regardless of the approach, careful planning is needed, both to insure ongoing viablity, but also support by parents, faculty, leadership and the congregation.

You might have noticed that I didn’t include other potential 1:1 computing solutions like traditional netbooks or iPads/Tablets. That discussion is for another day, but in short, I don’t believe those approaches offer as much upside as the Chromebook…at least in my opinion. Many of those reasons I have already shared in previous blog posts. But they include ease of administration, seamless inclusion in classroom activities, and cost.

Tune in next week as I talk about the physical Chromebooks themselves — their construction and configuration.

Note: This week I installed and used an extension from the Chrome Webstore called ScribeFire to write this post. So far so good as it will allow me to write one article and post to multiple blogs. I’ll write up a more thorough review after some more testing.

A couple of weeks ago I outlined the numerous positives associated with a Web-based computing model in the classroom. “Living in the browser” is definitely doable! However, it’s not all peaches and cream. There are some rough spots when trying to live online. Let’s look at a few.

1. OK. OK. The obvious down side of living in the browser is that you have to have a solid internet connection. There are a couple of concerns here of course. One is the stability of your wireless infrastructure. Many of our schools have cobbled together Linksys routers and aren’t totally sure how to correctly configure them, keep them updated with new firmware, secure them or insure there is solid coverage throughout the building. A second concern is the amount of bandwidth available when more than a few students need solid speeds to get their work done. Cheaper/older routers struggle with too many connections. “Free” internet that some cable providers give to schools may not have enough bandwidth to support a whole class or two of students online at the same time.

None of these issues are show stoppers but they will require a knowledgeable network person (or consultant) and perhaps some funds to upgrade equipment or internet service. I don’t have any concerns about the Chromebooks ability to find and connect to any wireless network. I’ve been on many networks of different shapes and sizes without any issue.

2. The second possible negative of a Web-only approach to computing is that there are just some applications that aren’t available in a web app. Most of these are in the processor (both CPU and Graphics) intensive category of apps. It will be very hard to find a usable application that will allow students to do movie editing within the browser. This may be changing, but right now I haven’t seen anything that can do what iMovie or MovieMaker do. Part of the reason for this is that web apps can’t use a lot of local storage space to cache files.

The potential solution for this issue is to have a few desktop computers in the classroom that could be used for video and audio editing. If that isn’t possible, wait a 6 to 12 months and I’m sure programmers will figure out how to allow these kinds of apps to run acceptably in the browser.

3. The third is similar to number two and is app related. Web-based apps may not be as feature-full as their desktop alternative. As good as Google Docs or Microsoft Office Live are, they do not compare to the full suite of tools available in MS Office or even Open Office / Libre Office. Google has recently updated it’s Presentations tool, but there still is a gap between it and MS PowerPoint or Keynote. Having said that, students may not need the extra features. You will have to make the call.

4. Finally, the last negative in a classroom setting I can think of is that EVERYTHING you do requires a username and password. Almost all web-based apps need to know who you are. Thus your students will need to set up an account for each service they use. Currently there is no “single-sign on” that app makers use. Some use Google, some Facebook and other similar services, but the reality is that students may have to juggle (and remember) different logins (sometimes email, sometimes username, etc) and different password requirements.

That’s it for the “bad” of computing in a Web-only environment. There are probably others…printing comes to mind, but each school will have to weigh the goods and the bads and determine what works best for them. As you may have read in my last post, I visited a school that has successfully moved to an online-only experience quite well. However, that may not be for everybody. My next post will address the cost of implementing Chromebooks For The Classroom.

As I write this post I’m sitting in the back of the 7th and 8th grade classroom of Grace Lutheran School in Oshkosh, WI. Many thanks to the students there and Principal Peter Iles for allowing me to spend a morning with them to observe their use of Chromebooks. After their initial envy of my white Chromebook vs. their apparently boring black ones, they went about their studies as if I wasn’t there. A great environment to watch students, and teacher, use the technology.

Currently the students are spending some time with their Chromebooks using KhanAcademy to practice math exercises. Very engaged. Very smooth. Principal Isles plays music while the kids work and shows the Khan Class Statistics on the screen in the front, displaying a line chart of classroom performance as they answer questions on their screens.

Grace Lutheran School has about 130 students. The 7th and 8th grade has 16 students. They were the very first elementary school in the country to introduce Chromebooks into the classroom. They have had a number of visitors so far this school year interested in watching their progress including the area newspaper. Of course, Google is very interested in their experience as well. Principal Iles was invited to Chicago recently to share his experience with education technologists and teachers.

As they started math class, the students were instructed to get their Chromebooks from a wheeled cart in the back of the room with slots for each laptop with a powercord attached. The whole process took about 2 minutes, and another 30 seconds later the kids had opened their Chromebooks, logged in and were working. Zero disruption to the educational process. Very important and impressive. The “instant on” nature of a Chromebook makes it a much better startup experience versus other more traditional netbooks some classrooms are trying.

The students seem to be very at home with the Chromebooks. Some use a mouse, others just the trackpad. All seem to be fairly proficient at the keyboard. Gone are the day when later years of grade school are spent in Mavis Typing Tutor to get the hang of a QWERTY keyboard. They still have “typing” practice, but not many use the hunt and peck approach I remember. They still also have a paper and pencil handy for scratching out math problems, etc, so it helps that their desks are about 2.5 feet wide. That will be something to consider in whatever computing device you want to place on the students desks. When classroom activities don’t include the Chromebooks (but they might be used later), the students are asked to close the lids. None of the students seem to be distracted by their presence. Just another tool at this point…like a textbook. Very natural.

There is very little technical infrastructure at the school. Basically they have internet access distributed throughout the school via wireless routers. No large file servers or other enterprise level network gear. Content filtering is provided through OpenDNS which Principal Iles manages by simply opening and blocking sites as necessary. They use the free version of OpenDNS and so far it has been meeting their needs. Most of our elementary schools are going to be in the same boat. The person in charge of technology is usually a full time teacher, so time spent administrating a network with proxy servers, content filters, domain servers and active directory management is not in the cards.

Principal Iles did relate that a couple of days ago a student came to him with a Chromebook that clearly had issues. After trying to work with it, he decided just to wipe it, restore the OS and re-enroll the machine on their Google Apps domain. Presto. Problem solved. BTW, that whole process takes about 5 minutes. All the apps, etc. are restored along with. No further configuration or installations necessary.

Note: Thanks for the cookie (I’m talking a real one here) from the young lady celebrating a birthday!

The students are now in the midst of History class. Principal Iles asked them to open their Chromebooks and then use the “Cornell Notes” template from Google Docs. He has assigned a specific naming convention for their notes (i.e. 20-1), so they can all “be on the same page” when referring to their notes related to a specific class and topic. Again, the entire process from sit down to start note taking was about 30 seconds. Toward the end of the class each student was asked to write a lesson summary.

The teacher doesn’t share his PowerPoints currently, but is considering using the new and improved Google Presentations tool, which he would then share with the students. He tries to keep the slides fairly simple, which then encourages the students not just to type everything they see on screen, but also listen for important points and type those into their notes.

Now the students have “computer class” which starts with touch typing practice using a free app called Touch Typing Tutorial from Typing Club.com. This is still important to speed/optimize note taking and paper writing. Principal Iles then went through a worksheet on Password Tips. A great idea to have class time devoted to essential computing best practices. The assignment is to create three “strong” and “weak” passwords that historical figures might have created (i.e. Albert Einstein and Mark Twain). So Twain might have created Huckl3b3rryFinn (strong) and beckythatcher (weak). The students used their Chrombooks to search for and research historical figures. Wikipedia seems to be a popular resource. Nice mix of tech and history. Some of the kids came up with -!raccoonboyH<3boots!- and TrigrHapy3 (Davey Crockett and George Eastman respectively). Fun.

During their research one student stumbled on a site that had a video that was set to autoplay. She quickly stopped it, but I can imagine that happening quite often during surfing exercises. Just something to be aware of. BTW, the students do have headphones available if they want to play a video they find.

The students only use the Chromebooks while in class, but as most students have computers at home, they will have access to all their Google Apps files from their home computers. This prevents lost and damaged computers, but still allows anytime access to assignments, notes, etc. No need to allow access “into” the schools network. It’s all on Google Apps.

Principal Iles uses other tools to interact with his students including the built in email and even Google Talk/Chat to address questions from the kids. Over lunch with Peter I explored a number of other topics including printing, paying for the devices, the relationship with Google and many other topics that I’ll share in future posts.

For now, I’d like to again thank Principal Peter Iles and the students of his 7th and 8th grade classroom. You guys were great. I had a good time and learned a lot. Blessings on your continued use of Chromebooks and your growing in knowledge and faith!