The opinions, viewpoints, and beliefs expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the opinions, viewpoints, or beliefs of the Titan Times newspaper, Tuscarora High School or Frederick County Public Schools.

I don’t know about everyone else but last year when FCPS announced the 1:1 program it sounded like a good idea to me. Now, fast forward to this year when the school started implementing the program and theory meets reality. In flex we got a large packet that explained to us the Chromebooks and the different options as far as their use and BYOD. But you already know all of this. What I wish to do is to examine the benefits/drawbacks of the Chromebook initiative.

Chromebooks were first introduced back in June of 2011, but were not very popular on the retail market because they require wi-fi access in order to do pretty much anything. One of the biggest issues with the OS being web based is that you can’t download any application that we use during school such as Microsoft Office, and Adobe. Then in the fall of 2012, with retail sales lagging far behind other similar laptop/ipad options, Google looked to the education market in order to try and move its product. Google has the largest presence in the nationwide school system at 58%, while Windows comes in at 22% and Apple at 19%. Throughout the United States there are about 30 million kids who are using some form of the Google Education Apps, which include Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms, as well as Gmail, Google Calendar and Sites as well as Chromebooks. Which is not unfounded seeing as Chromebook are one of the most secure testing devices, as the school can turn off the USB ports and the internet access.

However interconnected the google education apps allow you to be, that fact does not make up for the fact that these Chromebooks are not great pieces of computer equipment. They haven’t improved much in the 6 years they have been around, which in computer terms means that even brand new Chromebooks are somewhat outdated out of the box. The fact is that Chromebooks really only exist today because schools across the country purchase them. In other words, if schools weren’t buying these devices, the company would most likely have discontinued production based on the rather dismal retail numbers. The Dell Chromebook 11s, that the school bought, go for roughly $249, for just another $50 the schools could have bought the Chromebook with windows instead of chrome OS. The Windows option would have allowed for students to use industry standard programs like Word and Excel and would also have allowed students to print their work or to print out study guides created by teachers on their Google classrooms. The fact is, for the price of $250, you can buy a Windows laptop with a far greater range of capabilities.

To sum it all up I think there were better choices Frederick County could have explored. While the prospect of having a 1:1 program is a good idea, the school system would have been wise to do a little more homework before committing to a county wide expenditure that locks us into the Chromebooks for the foreseeable future. The Chromebooks are under-powered and limited pieces of technology that fall short of realizing the true potential of the 1:1 initiative. There are obviously pros and cons to any system of 1:1 digital device learning practices, and the Chromebooks do work ok in many instances. But, the idea that this initiative is groundbreaking or that it will somehow make FCPS a better place to attend school is, in my opinion, a bit overstated. All in all, Chromebooks are not awesome or even above average they’re just simply satisfactory and as such, I give them a grade of C.

Sources:

Heater, Brian. “As Chromebook Sales Soar in Schools, Apple and Microsoft Fight Back.” TechCrunch, TechCrunch, 27 Apr. 2017, techcrunch.com/2017/04/27/as-chromebook-sales-soar-in-schools-apple-and-microsoft-fight-back/.

FerociousWalt, et al. “HP Stream 14-ax030wm 14.” Walmart.com, 13 Sept. 2017, www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Stream-14-ax030wm-14-Smoke-Gray-Windows-10-Home-Office-365-Personal-1-year-included-Intel-Celeron-Processor-N3060-4GB-Memory-32GB-Storage/441405265.

Google Search, Google, www.google.com/search?safe=strict&q=Dell%2BChromebook%2B11%2BPrice&oq=Dell%2BChromebook%2B11%2BPrice&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0l4.7297.10895.0.11199.8.8.0.0.0.0.197.1119.0j8.8.0..2..0…1.1.64.psy-ab..0.8.1118.FMG_RI-ZUSc.