Chromebooks For The Classroom (Installation & First Impressions)
Earlier this week I was able to secure a Samsung Chromebook and have Google essentially “emulate” the experience a school technology administrator and a student using the device might have. Normally Google will not allow an off-the-shelf Chromebook to connect to a Google Apps environment. So with a 30 day variance my objective with this project is threefold:
- Determine the fit for our typical WELS classrooms considering a 1:1 computing initiative (primarily our high schools and elementary schools). This will include the budgetary impact and suggested ways to fund them.
- Test the administrative capabilities of Google Apps and the Chromebook to see if our overworked technology coordinators will save time with a more centralized computing environment approach
- Identify web-based applications that will serve as suitable substitutes for traditional (i.e. PC-based) applications used in classrooms.
Each blog post in this series will examine a different aspect of the project, but what I’m looking forward to the most is the feedback I hope to get from teachers and school technology coordinators.
Introduction
For those not familiar with the Chromebook or Google Apps, here are a couple of links to get you started: 1) Intro to Chromebooks and the Chrome OS, 2) Google Apps for Education. In short, the combination of a internet-only netbook and online web applications suggest a student computing experience that can be flexible and manageable by the teacher and school tech guru. This is not a traditional computing environment. It is entirely browser based — Google Chrome in this case. All content that is created needs to be
stored “in the cloud” as the Chromebook has only limited and temporary storage. This also means that no traditional downloadable or disk-based application can be installed on the machine. So every application needs to be able to run in a browser. This, I believe, will be the challenge. As we go through the review, things will become a little clearer if you are still a bit fuzzy.
Installation
The setup process for starting a Chromebook and getting a student going on it right away is a snap. The school, of course, needs a Google Apps account. Refer to the previous link to get signed up. Any school can get one for free. This will provide email, document storage, calendaring, web sites, chat, etc. The school technology administrator will need to create accounts for each student who will be using a Chromebook. You don’t really need one laptop per child to make this work, but each child will need an account on Google Apps. One of the sweet things about a Chromebook is that anybody with an account can use the device with no fear of any security issues. The laptop is just a web browser and thus there are not files left on desktops or differences in applications. Therefore the laptops can be shared easily. It doesn’t matter which one the student grabs.
Before the laptops get distributed for use by the students the administrator will want to start each one and follow the setup instructions. It takes about 2 minutes (depending on whether the Chrome OS needs to be updated–it happens automatically). You will need to find the local wifi, enter the credentials for it, and then “enroll” the laptop. It’s a simple key combination and then enter in a username and password that belongs on the Google Apps domain. After that, just log off the machine and close the lid. When the student opens it for the first time, all they will have to do is enter their Google Apps username and password. Their desktops, applications and extensions will be all ready for them. I’ll write about how to set that up in a later post.
My guess is that the prep time per machine will be about five minutes tops. The domain setup will take longer depending on how much customization you want to do, but that discussion we’ll save for another day.
First Impressions
After one day with the Samsung Chromebook and just playing around with the Google Apps configuration settings, I will not have a lot of depth to my reactions. But here are a few…
1. The Samsung Chromebook is adequate, but not a powerhouse by any means. I’m probably not going to be able to provide a very balanced review as the only thing I really have to compare it to is the Macbook Air. The two are similar in size and weight, but that is about as far as it goes. Now the Macbook Air is about three times the price, and you can tell. The place where I notice the most is the screen, especially viewing angles. Having said that, I think the Chromebook is perfectly suitable for classroom and homework use. It seems durable. The keys are responsive, as is the touchpad. There are special keys on the keyboard well suited to web browsing–a search key replaces the caps lock, and browser type buttons (back, forward, full screen) have replaced the function keys.
2. One of my first challenges was trying to fine a tool to write this blog post. I do most of my writing on a Windows machine and absolutely love Windows Live Writer. It allows me to write one article and publish across the three blogs I maintain. Working within the Chrome OS I was unable to find an “app” that came close to providing that kind of functionality. To be fair, that grade of tool is also not available on the Mac OS X. I wound up simply using the built-in web-based authoring tool within WordPress. Two of my three blogs are WordPress based. The extra step of course is that I have to copy the content from one web site to another.
3. Setup was a joy and at first blush, the configuration of the domain and user preferences looks to be equally as easy. This will be key as an initiative like this must be administrator friendly. Admittedly the fact that everything is web-based can be a double edged sword, but in the case of centralized administration and user updates, this is the way to go.
Conclusion
Overall a great start. The hardware seems workable, the setup easy and the entire concept of cloud computing in the classroom intriguing. My next post will cover the Google Apps configuration process and how easy/hard it will be to configure a standardized computing environment for any student who cracks open a Chromebook.
As I read through your comments it occurred to me that I shouldn’t need the chromebook, but simply the access to the cloud and/or the program itself. As a teacher why can’t we use a web based system without the expense of a dedicated piece of hardware. It would be excellent in my opinion if a student and/or adult learner could access his/her lessons from any computer where he could input a username/password combination. From the home, office, with a desktop and/or laptop or smartphone.
As a pastor I would need to create lessons, exercise sheets, and have privatized comment back capabilities to carry on a full scale adult information course, etc.
Fred, great questions. Some of my later posts and future posts will address them. I’d say a couple of the real benefits of “dedicated” hardware is the ability to manage them and lock them down in a classroom setting. A busy teacher doesn’t have time to maintain a lot of equipment, but if they can install and control the computing experience for every students machine from a central interface, that’s gold for them. Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for more of my experiences.