We’ve certainly been hearing quite a lot about Chromebooks in the tech world. However, when the machines finally started to hit the virtual and retail store shelves, they didn’t actually sell very well.
Nevertheless, Mountain View recently landed a deal that could offer the Chromebook wider exposure. Yes, according to CNET, three school districts – in Iowa, Illinois, and South Carolina – will be snapping up 27,000 of the devices.
If you think about it, the deal is quite a win for Google, as Apple is always pulling out all the stops to get its computers into schools.
Remember, the students of today are the ones who will be buying tech in the future. Meaning, if you can hook them on your hardware and software while kids are young, they may tend to gravitate towards it in the future.
Google’s Rajen Sheth, who leads the Chromebook for business and education push, said that there are currently Chromebooks in school districts across 41 states across the country. Some of the schools that use Chromebooks were previously making do with tablets in the classroom, an arrangement that was just fine with most of the students.
“Students love the tablet,” Diane Gilbert, a South Carolina teacher, told CNET. “I am not going to hide that from you. They will bow down and kiss your feet.”
However, Gilbert thinks the Chromebooks may be more appropriate for the classroom as students can more easily follow scholastic guidelines by using them to to type and publish their work. Of course, another benefit for schools with Chromebooks is that the devices update themselves automatically.
“A lot of schools are on OSes that are 5 to 10 years old because of the cost and labor to bring that up to the latest standard…The Chromebook updates itself automatically and gets better over time,” added Sheth.
Indeed, Leyden Community High School District in Illinois plans to roll out 3,500 Chromebooks next year for that very reason.
“This is the right device for student learning. We plan to deploy 3,500 to students next year. Every single student will be issued a Chromebook they can use at school and at home,” confirmed Bryan Weinert, technology coordinator for the Leyden Community High School District.
“We were looking for a device that can be invisible. We want teachers to focus on instruction, [rather than the computer].”
