Sad, but the reality is that most schools will use what is the cheapest, not the best. My nephews use Chromebooks in school and it just pains me to see the frustrations in their faces when those cheap pieces of junk act up.
It pains me to see in classrooms these stupid apple laptops which are too thin with terrible keyboards. Why they are obsessed with laptops so thin is beyond me. As a long time shareholder I think their laptops suck.
Funny, since one of the hallmarks of Apple laptops are the keyboards and touch pads being best-in-class. And you say their laptops suck? Your BS wreaks of troll, get lost.
I'm as big an iPad fan as they come, and even I think that ChromeBooks are a far better solution for classrooms.
Spoken by someone who has obviously never used a junker ChromeBook, nor who values their privacy and is willing to hand it over to Google on a silver platter.
I have used Chromebooks, and (more to the point) my daughter uses them at her high school. She is perfectly content, despite the fact that we are an all Mac and iPad household at home. She really likes the ease with which she can access her school work from our Macs at home, in the same environment.
I appreciate and value top-quality hardware, more than most people, but I think Chromebooks, junkers or otherwise, are just fine for schools. Especially for poorly funded public schools. The best tool in the world might not be the best tool for a particular job.
Like hell they're fine... All they do is infuriate most rational users with their poor performance and bargain-basement components, which don't last long at all and then end up in a landfill. Nice of the school to be teaching the next generation to be cheap bastards with no concept of using something of better quality that can last longer to preserve the environment, and oh, give you privacy and reliability.
And as for poorly-funded public schools, as someone else here mentioned already, Apple, along with most PC OEM's, offer competitive lease and buyback programs to help those with less funding still get decent hardware. Even junker Windows PC laptops are a FAR better option that a shitbox Chromebook running a web-based OS. At least those cheap Windows machine run a full operating system with local storage hardware, and can be properly and fully managed.
The mentality of the disposable society, who has no concern for the health of the environment for future generations, summed up and showcased with this one sentence... Disgusting.
Apple also sells mainly disposable stuff (iPad, Macs with mostly soldered or glued in components, that can't be repaired or upgraded), just for a lot more money. But that doesn't make them any less disposable.
There's the IT side for management and costs. There's purchasing's watching the budget. And there's in-classroom use, where curriculum design matters. Frequently, technology used to get dumped on teachers with very little in the way of curriculum support. Chromebooks get used for the same old 'slides, docs, sheets' competency stuff, and looking stuff up on the web, not much more. iPads are more broad. http://www.speirs.org/blog/2010/10/19/ipads-curriculum-for-excellence-and-the-next-generation.html is a decent read on how one school has integrated them.
There is no need for schools as underfunded as they are to use Apple products. Much too expensive for a product that is moving at such a quick pace. And much too expensive in how brutal a classroom will be towards them. And no way for a overtaxed teacher to fiddle with since there is no way to easily configure a classroom of iOS devices remotely.
Ios as it is today is not classroom friendly on the OS side or the cost side. This coming from an education side and with friends on the inside as well. Chrome books are the best solution for that classroom. This is an unbiased response. Just the sobering truth.
I think your last sentence misspells "just an uninformed opinion". No offense, but do you even know what you're talking about? Apple has a leasing program that allows you to maintain the latest hardware and then they have a partner buy back the hardware at the end of the lease, which makes them cost less than the up front price. So, you can keep up with technology pretty easily.
Uninformed is YOU. What experience in education do you have? Probably none. do you have a masters in educational technology like I do?
If if you don't want to make a fool of yourself, I suggest you quit talking out of your ass
Your response is a very low-value post. He supplied info related to his point (leasing program for cost) and as has been posted here it's very easy to use a MDM to manage and configure them remotely.
You have countered none of that and just resorted to uncalled for aggression.
-1
That's a lot of bs. His comment was the one that was aggressive. And both of you do not grasp the reality of where the schools are at. As if the the teachers who can barely use an iPhone for personal use have the tools and time and education to fuss with anything they've never heard of. Ive educated you and him both. That's as high value as you can get. VS you both talking out of your ass who know nothing about the state of educational technology talk like biased fanboys with no basis on reality.
You touch on a real problem. My work takes me into education (primary mainly) and there are a lot of smartboards in classes that mostly go unused because the teachers just don't know how to use them. Smartboards aren't really noticeable in secondary schools but teachers and students are supposed to use Moodle which again fails because a lot of teachers simply have little or poor training in the systems.
And your chances of seeing a Mac or iPad are about as good as seeing a dodo.
It's a problem that might get better over time as new teachers arrive who have grown up with technology.
I'm referring to state run schools in an area that covers 6 million people.
In higher education my work takes me ointo the data centers and the management side, some supercomputing, science and data visualisation (not teachers or students).
My kids school use to be all Macs. There was a room filled with iMacs used for the current AR. Did drive me a little crazy the kids fighting over colors. All gone and replaced with a room filed with Chromebases.
But it is not only the elementary but the middle and high school the same way. They teach AP CS 1 and CS 2 using Chromebooks and Crouton. AP classes are all taught in Java now.
Apple MUST get a solution with a keyboard that is somewhere between an iPad and a Mac. These kids are being trained 6 or 7 hours a day on the Google eccosystem. Basically the state is paying for their training. This is something Apple needs to get serious about.
What is kind of amazing is Cooks' own high school recently created headlines when they replaced all the Macs in the school with Chromebooks. Cook response was a shot at Chromebooks and lack of creativity.
Much of what has been mentioned in previous comments is true. But more central to the question is that stubborn 2/5's in society who for whatever reason, have a political/moral/aping negative attitude against Apple and the supposed 'progressive' agenda. The reason this is exceptionally relevant in this discussion is because, those good meaning souls have decisively wedged their way into majority voting positions in school administrations and school boards throughout America. the best interest of the children, education, long term use/value, tech etc., goes by the wayside. Apple is an easy target!
What? The Apple hardware is being replaced with Google hardware, software, and eccosystem. Is Google less progressive than Apple? They replaced because Apple would not listen. Look at Cooks own high school replacing all the Macs with Chromebooks. Was this because of Apple being progressive and Google now?
I'm as big an iPad fan as they come, and even I think that ChromeBooks are a far better solution for classrooms.
I agree. My kids have access to iPads, windows machines, and chromebooks at home (I won't let them use my Mac). They fight over the chromebook for homework. Chromebooks are great devices for online research, writing, simple photo editing and graphic design (more than they need for school) etc. Not so good at games, high end photo / video editing, but that is rarely needed for school.
I've worked in Senior Secondary for 10 years, an IT department of 12 staff ( for 800 students) buy crappy Lenovos at bargain prices to make a fortune off re-leading them year after year to the students AND preserving their jobs indefinitely. Adobe software is barely discernible it's so miniaturised on the screen and the tiny erratic trackpad gives the kids no control over basic functions. Not to mention the crashes, constant re-imaging required and the fact they fall apart after the slightest drop. Then there's viruses. At my daughter's school they use MacBook Airs and she never visited the techs once in 5 years ( they had 3 techs for 1000 students). So the non- Apple choice serves the students least of all!! And wastes all their time on pointless tech work...
There is no need for schools as underfunded as they are to use Apple products. Much too expensive for a product that is moving at such a quick pace. And much too expensive in how brutal a classroom will be towards them. And no way for a overtaxed teacher to fiddle with since there is no way to easily configure a classroom of iOS devices remotely.
Ios as it is today is not classroom friendly on the OS side or the cost side. This coming from an education side and with friends on the inside as well. Chrome books are the best solution for that classroom. This is an unbiased response. Just the sobering truth.
With proper management tools, you can configure and manage iOS devices (and Macs) remotely very easily. Its called an MDM (Mobile Device Management) solution. We use Jamf Pro to manage our iPads (and our Macs) and its great. I can have all the management setup before the iPads even get at our door so when we take them out of the box we could literally just hand them out and after connecting them to wifi, they set themselves up automatically along with pushing any necessary apps, web clips, setting up folder layouts, restricting what apps they can use (include the App/iTunes Store), etc, etc. Yes, its a pain in the butt managing them individually, or using Apple Configurator...its very easy to manage them using an MDM and a good MDM.
You can also use a management system provided to Google to manage ChromeBooks and you can use SCCM to manage Windows devices. All platforms have a management solution. Some work better than others and some are restricted by what the device can or can't do.
I know nothing about this, myself. How would you suggest Apple improve Apple Configurator?
There is no need for schools as underfunded as they are to use Apple products. Much too expensive for a product that is moving at such a quick pace. And much too expensive in how brutal a classroom will be towards them. And no way for a overtaxed teacher to fiddle with since there is no way to easily configure a classroom of iOS devices remotely.
Ios as it is today is not classroom friendly on the OS side or the cost side. This coming from an education side and with friends on the inside as well. Chrome books are the best solution for that classroom. This is an unbiased response. Just the sobering truth.
With proper management tools, you can configure and manage iOS devices (and Macs) remotely very easily. Its called an MDM (Mobile Device Management) solution. We use Jamf Pro to manage our iPads (and our Macs) and its great. I can have all the management setup before the iPads even get at our door so when we take them out of the box we could literally just hand them out and after connecting them to wifi, they set themselves up automatically along with pushing any necessary apps, web clips, setting up folder layouts, restricting what apps they can use (include the App/iTunes Store), etc, etc. Yes, its a pain in the butt managing them individually, or using Apple Configurator...its very easy to manage them using an MDM and a good MDM.
You can also use a management system provided to Google to manage ChromeBooks and you can use SCCM to manage Windows devices. All platforms have a management solution. Some work better than others and some are restricted by what the device can or can't do.
I know nothing about this, myself. How would you suggest Apple improve Apple Configurator?
Honestly, Apple really isn't interested in making Apple Configurator like an MDM. Apple Configurator was meant to be something to setup iPads in a cart environment. Apple themselves uses JAMF Casper for their own stuff. The last time I was in an Apple Retail store the Macs I think it was had Self Service in the Launcher. Self Service is a feature of Casper (aka JAMF Pro) where you can assign apps in a repository for users to download without admin rights or Apple ID's. So Apple themselves must be using Casper MDM to manage their iPads and Macs, at least in their retail stores.
Apple provides the API's for developers to tap into and companies like JAMF create an MDM solution around them. Some are better than others. They all have the same basic functions since they all have the same API's to tap into. Its just that others go deeper into certain things like Casper also taps into Apple's GSX (Apple Self Service) so I can use our GSX account to automatically download purchase dates as well as AppleCare expiration dates. They also have a full inventory section where you even even add in peripherals such as laptop chargers. You can manage your entire inventory from Casper. There's even a Windows client so Casper to pull inventory information for your PC's as well (it cannot manage PC's). You can also push and pull apps remotely WITHOUT an AppleID using Device based app assignments vs VPP codes which require an AppleID authentication per install.
I used to use Apple Configurator exclusively, and now I don't even have it installed. Its just not necessary anymore.
Sad, but the reality is that most schools will use what is the cheapest, not the best. My nephews use Chromebooks in school and it just pains me to see the frustrations in their faces when those cheap pieces of junk act up.
The advantage to a ChromeBook is that if it acts up, toss it out and unpack a new one, and your're up and running in 5 minutes.
The mentality of the disposable society, who has no concern for the health of the environment for future generations, summed up and showcased with this one sentence... Disgusting.
Sorry, but Apple is headed that way as well: the average life of an Apple product is a little over 5 years. Even my 4 month old Apple Watch got tossed when its haptic feedback failed. Instead of repair, Apple replaced. The question then becomes: do you toss a $400+ unit or a $200 one?
Sad, but the reality is that most schools will use what is the cheapest, not the best. My nephews use Chromebooks in school and it just pains me to see the frustrations in their faces when those cheap pieces of junk act up.
The advantage to a ChromeBook is that if it acts up, toss it out and unpack a new one, and your're up and running in 5 minutes.
The mentality of the disposable society, who has no concern for the health of the environment for future generations, summed up and showcased with this one sentence... Disgusting.
Sorry, but Apple is headed that way as well: the average life of an Apple product is a little over 5 years. Even my 4 month old Apple Watch got tossed when its haptic feedback failed. Instead of repair, Apple replaced. The question then becomes: do you toss a $400+ unit or a $200 one?
If Apple replaced your Apple Watch, I seriously doubt it got tossed. They most likely refurbish it and use it for replacements for someone else who has an issue with their watch. The same thing happens with iPads, Macs, etc. It makes no sense to simply toss something because of a part failure. Just refurbish the device and either resell it, or keep it in inventory for customer replacements. The times it can't do this like when the case is too damaged it gets recycled.
There are ways for Apple to compete better on price while still maintaining quality.
For example, make an ARM based MacBook with 128 GB SSD and an education-specific iCloud service.
Switching from Intel to ARM and cutting the SSD, combined with market segmentation, could probably get the MacBook under $1,000.
Alternatively, keep the MBA form factor around just for the education market and put ARM in that. Now we're talking maybe a $500 machine.
Speaking as a tax payer, how are any of those options cheaper than a $200 chromebook?
To double or quadruple the cost, schools would have to justify that. Unfortunately, there is nothing in the Apple ecosystem that can provide a higher quality education to justify the higher cost.
My kids school use to be all Macs. There was a room filled with iMacs used for the current AR. Did drive me a little crazy the kids fighting over colors. All gone and replaced with a room filed with Chromebases.
But it is not only the elementary but the middle and high school the same way. They teach AP CS 1 and CS 2 using Chromebooks and Crouton. AP classes are all taught in Java now.
Apple MUST get a solution with a keyboard that is somewhere between an iPad and a Mac. These kids are being trained 6 or 7 hours a day on the Google eccosystem. Basically the state is paying for their training. This is something Apple needs to get serious about.
What is kind of amazing is Cooks' own high school recently created headlines when they replaced all the Macs in the school with Chromebooks. Cook response was a shot at Chromebooks and lack of creativity.
Absolutely agree.... Apple and most commenters here either don't know or have forgotten the early history of the PC: Microsoft came to dominate that market over CPM, Apple's OS and IBM's OS (even thought both were far and away superior in every way). They did that by flooding the market with cheap copies and it became THE STANDARD.
ChromeOS is doing the same: young people are being indoctrinated and conditioned to using it and it will become the standard.
Being technically superior did not save either the Apple or the IBM OS from being relegated to obscurity by Windows.
For myself: when my 4th grade grandson needs to access his school work from home he prefers to use his father's Chromebook (which was provided to him free by his employer) rather than an Apple or Windows based product (both of which are easily available to him). Already, he has been conditioned.
Come on Apple! This is not a game. You too can go the way of OS2. Technical superiority will not save you.
But, the crazy thing is: Apple already has the infrastructure in place to produce their own version of the Chromebook. They can do it. But they choose not to.
My kids school use to be all Macs. There was a room filled with iMacs used for the current AR. Did drive me a little crazy the kids fighting over colors. All gone and replaced with a room filed with Chromebases.
But it is not only the elementary but the middle and high school the same way. They teach AP CS 1 and CS 2 using Chromebooks and Crouton. AP classes are all taught in Java now.
Apple MUST get a solution with a keyboard that is somewhere between an iPad and a Mac. These kids are being trained 6 or 7 hours a day on the Google eccosystem. Basically the state is paying for their training. This is something Apple needs to get serious about.
What is kind of amazing is Cooks' own high school recently created headlines when they replaced all the Macs in the school with Chromebooks. Cook response was a shot at Chromebooks and lack of creativity.
Absolutely agree.... Apple and most commenters here either don't know or have forgotten the early history of the PC: Microsoft came to dominate that market over CPM, Apple's OS and IBM's OS (even thought both were far and away superior in every way). They did that by flooding the market with cheap copies and it became THE STANDARD.
ChromeOS is doing the same: young people are being indoctrinated and conditioned to using it and it will become the standard.
Being technically superior did not save either the Apple or the IBM OS from being relegated to obscurity by Windows.
For myself: when my 4th grade grandson needs to access his school work from home he prefers to use his father's Chromebook (which was provided to him free by his employer) rather than an Apple or Windows based product (both of which are easily available to him). Already, he has been conditioned.
Come on Apple! This is not a game. You too can go the way of OS2. Technical superiority will not save you.
But, the crazy thing is: Apple already has the infrastructure in place to produce their own version of the Chromebook. They can do it. But they choose not to.
It seems not that Apple needs to produce a chromebook, but that they need a better value computer for education use and far better out-of-the-box Mac and iPad device management solutions for teachers and people overseeing the system for their school or classroom—so far more powerful management tools with Apple ease of use re Apple Configurator and lower priced computer solutions for schools.
What many school fail to see is that this is an investment. I've seen so many school districts go for the cheapest products possible and then have to constantly replace them and need to maintenance them repeatedly. My wife's school district used to have Macs and one administrator. When they moved to cheap deals, the IT department went to 4 people and work would stop when devices would break, acquire viruses, etc. The perform of the systems were poor which required them to be replaced every year or two.
I build an app for musicians (which is used in some education-related roles). We still have many users running on iPad 2, 3, 4, etc. They are upset that we will no longer be supporting iOS 8 and older (we still support iOS 5.1.1 and higher). But realize that these users are still making good use out of a 6 yo device! It still works which a a testament to how Apple builds and maintains their products.
So the question is... do you purchase new Chromebooks every 2 years, or do you buy a more expensive device that can last 4-5 years? I think the latter is better in that your maintenance costs are lower and you're not throwing something out in the trash constantly that is hopefully being recycled. Unfortunately these products are built cheaply which means they are using non-recyclable materials which is damaging to the environment and ends up in a landfill since they are no longer useful. Apple products are made with aluminum and glass for this reason.
Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. I think that's what we ought to be looking at instead of the almighty dollar.
My kids school use to be all Macs. There was a room filled with iMacs used for the current AR. Did drive me a little crazy the kids fighting over colors. All gone and replaced with a room filed with Chromebases.
But it is not only the elementary but the middle and high school the same way. They teach AP CS 1 and CS 2 using Chromebooks and Crouton. AP classes are all taught in Java now.
Apple MUST get a solution with a keyboard that is somewhere between an iPad and a Mac. These kids are being trained 6 or 7 hours a day on the Google eccosystem. Basically the state is paying for their training. This is something Apple needs to get serious about.
What is kind of amazing is Cooks' own high school recently created headlines when they replaced all the Macs in the school with Chromebooks. Cook response was a shot at Chromebooks and lack of creativity.
Absolutely agree.... Apple and most commenters here either don't know or have forgotten the early history of the PC: Microsoft came to dominate that market over CPM, Apple's OS and IBM's OS (even thought both were far and away superior in every way). They did that by flooding the market with cheap copies and it became THE STANDARD.
ChromeOS is doing the same: young people are being indoctrinated and conditioned to using it and it will become the standard.
Being technically superior did not save either the Apple or the IBM OS from being relegated to obscurity by Windows.
For myself: when my 4th grade grandson needs to access his school work from home he prefers to use his father's Chromebook (which was provided to him free by his employer) rather than an Apple or Windows based product (both of which are easily available to him). Already, he has been conditioned.
Come on Apple! This is not a game. You too can go the way of OS2. Technical superiority will not save you.
But, the crazy thing is: Apple already has the infrastructure in place to produce their own version of the Chromebook. They can do it. But they choose not to.
It seems not that Apple needs to produce a chromebook, but that they need a better value computer for education use and far better out-of-the-box Mac and iPad device management solutions for teachers and people overseeing the system for their school or classroom—so far more powerful management tools with Apple ease of use re Apple Configurator and lower priced computer solutions for schools.
What Apple needs is a classroom management suite like Google Classroom. Apple has nothing..nada...zip! They're starting this pattern of relying on 3rd parties for everything (displays, routers, etc) and I think this is an area where they could have really pushed their products. Apple is really good at integrating its products into services they develop. Now, its far too late for this. There are certain things you can be late to the party to and this isn't one of them. Microsoft is already going through this with Office365. They're scrambling to get classroom type stuff released as part of Office365, playing massive catchup to Google Classroom. Whoever is in charge of the Apple Education as a whole isn't seeing the big picture. If they're working on something, it needs to be released and released now...not 18 months from now. By then, its far too late. Everyone is already settled into something else with a different device.
If they had a classroom suite, iPads would be a great tool for everyone. Right now, iPad is only as good as the 3rd party apps you can find on the App Store.
Offer better iPads at cheaper prices and education use will go up.
You can't easily type a paper on an IPad -- no cursor. Apple needs to fix that.
You don't need a cursor to type on an iPad. What Apple needs, is a good keyboard that isn't bluetooth connected and does't need to be charged separately. The Smart Keyboard for the iPad Pro models would be great if they could also work on regular iPads. School's aren't going to spend extra money on iPad Pro models.
The lack of a cursor isn't what's keep someone from using iPads. Thats the least of someone's issues. Thinking devices need cursors to succeed is backwards thinking.
What many school fail to see is that this is an investment. I've seen so many school districts go for the cheapest products possible and then have to constantly replace them and need to maintenance them repeatedly. My wife's school district used to have Macs and one administrator. When they moved to cheap deals, the IT department went to 4 people and work would stop when devices would break, acquire viruses, etc. The perform of the systems were poor which required them to be replaced every year or two.
I build an app for musicians (which is used in some education-related roles). We still have many users running on iPad 2, 3, 4, etc. They are upset that we will no longer be supporting iOS 8 and older (we still support iOS 5.1.1 and higher). But realize that these users are still making good use out of a 6 yo device! It still works which a a testament to how Apple builds and maintains their products.
So the question is... do you purchase new Chromebooks every 2 years, or do you buy a more expensive device that can last 4-5 years? I think the latter is better in that your maintenance costs are lower and you're not throwing something out in the trash constantly that is hopefully being recycled. Unfortunately these products are built cheaply which means they are using non-recyclable materials which is damaging to the environment and ends up in a landfill since they are no longer useful. Apple products are made with aluminum and glass for this reason.
Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. I think that's what we ought to be looking at instead of the almighty dollar.
The school I work in has a little of everything, so Windows PC's, ChromeBooks, iPads, and Macs. Why? So when a student graduates, they have experience with everything and not just one platform. Nobody knows what platform they'll be using in College, or in their work environment. We use both Google Classroom and Office365 for the same reason. IMO, there's no such thing is a one sized fits all approach. There are things a ChromeBook does that an iPad doesn't, but then there are things a Mac does that a Chromebook or Windows PC doesn't do as well. This is why I'm not sold on ChromeBooks. Yes, they cheap, but they're not very versatile. A Mac, iPad, or even a PC can handle Google Classroom and Office 365 along with other functions of the device. A ChromeBook relies on extensions for its ChromeOS and things like to try and be more versatile and are typically half-ass at best.
Sad, but the reality is that most schools will use what is the cheapest, not the best. My nephews use Chromebooks in school and it just pains me to see the frustrations in their faces when those cheap pieces of junk act up.
It pains me to see in classrooms these stupid apple laptops which are too thin with terrible keyboards. Why they are obsessed with laptops so thin is beyond me. As a long time shareholder I think their laptops suck.
Funny, since one of the hallmarks of Apple laptops are the keyboards and touch pads being best-in-class. And you say their laptops suck? Your BS wreaks of troll, get lost.
I'm as big an iPad fan as they come, and even I think that ChromeBooks are a far better solution for classrooms.
Spoken by someone who has obviously never used a junker ChromeBook, nor who values their privacy and is willing to hand it over to Google on a silver platter.
I have used Chromebooks, and (more to the point) my daughter uses them at her high school. She is perfectly content, despite the fact that we are an all Mac and iPad household at home. She really likes the ease with which she can access her school work from our Macs at home, in the same environment.
I appreciate and value top-quality hardware, more than most people, but I think Chromebooks, junkers or otherwise, are just fine for schools. Especially for poorly funded public schools. The best tool in the world might not be the best tool for a particular job.
Like hell they're fine... All they do is infuriate most rational users with their poor performance and bargain-basement components, which don't last long at all and then end up in a landfill. Nice of the school to be teaching the next generation to be cheap bastards with no concept of using something of better quality that can last longer to preserve the environment, and oh, give you privacy and reliability.
And as for poorly-funded public schools, as someone else here mentioned already, Apple, along with most PC OEM's, offer competitive lease and buyback programs to help those with less funding still get decent hardware. Even junker Windows PC laptops are a FAR better option that a shitbox Chromebook running a web-based OS. At least those cheap Windows machine run a full operating system with local storage hardware, and can be properly and fully managed.
I have to echo the other poster whose daughter uses a Chromebook at high school. Our two daughters use chromebooks at middle and high school. They work just fine. You can get an excellent Chromebook for 250 to 300 which will run far better than any Windows PC costing less than 700. And I know this because I have used about 7 different brands of chromebooks over the past 6 years.
Junker PC are usually a terrible choice for schools because they tend to be infested with malware unless the are constantly reimaged, they are slow and get slower over time.
Comments
Like hell they're fine... All they do is infuriate most rational users with their poor performance and bargain-basement components, which don't last long at all and then end up in a landfill. Nice of the school to be teaching the next generation to be cheap bastards with no concept of using something of better quality that can last longer to preserve the environment, and oh, give you privacy and reliability.
And as for poorly-funded public schools, as someone else here mentioned already, Apple, along with most PC OEM's, offer competitive lease and buyback programs to help those with less funding still get decent hardware. Even junker Windows PC laptops are a FAR better option that a shitbox Chromebook running a web-based OS. At least those cheap Windows machine run a full operating system with local storage hardware, and can be properly and fully managed.
But that doesn't make them any less disposable.
There's the IT side for management and costs.
There's purchasing's watching the budget.
And there's in-classroom use, where curriculum design matters. Frequently, technology used to get dumped on teachers with very little in the way of curriculum support. Chromebooks get used for the same old 'slides, docs, sheets' competency stuff, and looking stuff up on the web, not much more. iPads are more broad. http://www.speirs.org/blog/2010/10/19/ipads-curriculum-for-excellence-and-the-next-generation.html is a decent read on how one school has integrated them.
And your chances of seeing a Mac or iPad are about as good as seeing a dodo.
It's a problem that might get better over time as new teachers arrive who have grown up with technology.
I'm referring to state run schools in an area that covers 6 million people.
In higher education my work takes me ointo the data centers and the management side, some supercomputing, science and data visualisation (not teachers or students).
There, it's Linux, Windows and Chromebooks.
But it is not only the elementary but the middle and high school the same way. They teach AP CS 1 and CS 2 using Chromebooks and Crouton. AP classes are all taught in Java now.
Apple MUST get a solution with a keyboard that is somewhere between an iPad and a Mac. These kids are being trained 6 or 7 hours a day on the Google eccosystem. Basically the state is paying for their training. This is something Apple needs to get serious about.
What is kind of amazing is Cooks' own high school recently created headlines when they replaced all the Macs in the school with Chromebooks. Cook response was a shot at Chromebooks and lack of creativity.
So the non- Apple choice serves the students least of all!! And wastes all their time on pointless tech work...
http://www.apple.com/feedback/configurator.html
Apple provides the API's for developers to tap into and companies like JAMF create an MDM solution around them. Some are better than others. They all have the same basic functions since they all have the same API's to tap into. Its just that others go deeper into certain things like Casper also taps into Apple's GSX (Apple Self Service) so I can use our GSX account to automatically download purchase dates as well as AppleCare expiration dates. They also have a full inventory section where you even even add in peripherals such as laptop chargers. You can manage your entire inventory from Casper. There's even a Windows client so Casper to pull inventory information for your PC's as well (it cannot manage PC's). You can also push and pull apps remotely WITHOUT an AppleID using Device based app assignments vs VPP codes which require an AppleID authentication per install.
I used to use Apple Configurator exclusively, and now I don't even have it installed. Its just not necessary anymore.
To double or quadruple the cost, schools would have to justify that. Unfortunately, there is nothing in the Apple ecosystem that can provide a higher quality education to justify the higher cost.
Apple and most commenters here either don't know or have forgotten the early history of the PC:
Microsoft came to dominate that market over CPM, Apple's OS and IBM's OS (even thought both were far and away superior in every way). They did that by flooding the market with cheap copies and it became THE STANDARD.
ChromeOS is doing the same: young people are being indoctrinated and conditioned to using it and it will become the standard.
Being technically superior did not save either the Apple or the IBM OS from being relegated to obscurity by Windows.
For myself: when my 4th grade grandson needs to access his school work from home he prefers to use his father's Chromebook (which was provided to him free by his employer) rather than an Apple or Windows based product (both of which are easily available to him). Already, he has been conditioned.
Come on Apple! This is not a game. You too can go the way of OS2. Technical superiority will not save you.
But, the crazy thing is: Apple already has the infrastructure in place to produce their own version of the Chromebook. They can do it. But they choose not to.
I build an app for musicians (which is used in some education-related roles). We still have many users running on iPad 2, 3, 4, etc. They are upset that we will no longer be supporting iOS 8 and older (we still support iOS 5.1.1 and higher). But realize that these users are still making good use out of a 6 yo device! It still works which a a testament to how Apple builds and maintains their products.
So the question is... do you purchase new Chromebooks every 2 years, or do you buy a more expensive device that can last 4-5 years? I think the latter is better in that your maintenance costs are lower and you're not throwing something out in the trash constantly that is hopefully being recycled. Unfortunately these products are built cheaply which means they are using non-recyclable materials which is damaging to the environment and ends up in a landfill since they are no longer useful. Apple products are made with aluminum and glass for this reason.
Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. I think that's what we ought to be looking at instead of the almighty dollar.
If they had a classroom suite, iPads would be a great tool for everyone. Right now, iPad is only as good as the 3rd party apps you can find on the App Store.
You don't need a cursor to type on an iPad. What Apple needs, is a good keyboard that isn't bluetooth connected and does't need to be charged separately. The Smart Keyboard for the iPad Pro models would be great if they could also work on regular iPads. School's aren't going to spend extra money on iPad Pro models.
The lack of a cursor isn't what's keep someone from using iPads. Thats the least of someone's issues. Thinking devices need cursors to succeed is backwards thinking.
The school I work in has a little of everything, so Windows PC's, ChromeBooks, iPads, and Macs. Why? So when a student graduates, they have experience with everything and not just one platform. Nobody knows what platform they'll be using in College, or in their work environment. We use both Google Classroom and Office365 for the same reason. IMO, there's no such thing is a one sized fits all approach. There are things a ChromeBook does that an iPad doesn't, but then there are things a Mac does that a Chromebook or Windows PC doesn't do as well. This is why I'm not sold on ChromeBooks. Yes, they cheap, but they're not very versatile. A Mac, iPad, or even a PC can handle Google Classroom and Office 365 along with other functions of the device. A ChromeBook relies on extensions for its ChromeOS and things like to try and be more versatile and are typically half-ass at best.
Junker PC are usually a terrible choice for schools because they tend to be infested with malware unless the are constantly reimaged, they are slow and get slower over time.