IMO management of large numbers of devices is a big factor. The Chromebook's cloud-focus makes it easier to manage accounts, software, and OS updates. The iPads that get rolled around on a cart at my wife's school are basically individually managed devices, and updating the OSes is a time-consuming PITA, even though the iPad cart has a Macbook that they all connect to for updating/wiping. Apple basically doesn't provide an easy and fast way of managing them and their apps.
This is absolute rubbish.
Apple not only provides their own software, Apple Configurator, but offers a significant number of APIs for third party software for mobile device management with significantly more features than Google Chromebook Management Console.
If they think iPads have shortcomings, wait till they try Chromebooks. Chromebooks only give you the web, and no programs at all. If keyboards are the issue, that would have been a cheaper solution.
Give them time. They'll be changing their tune soon enough. Chromebook? I'm surprise they didn't go for surface pros with the keyboards or MacBooks. Chromebooks? What a joke?
Rebuttal: Apple should be highlighting how brain-dead these people are. Show them why keyboards aren’t necessary, etc.
No argument here. But telling people they're brain-dead is not an effective strategy to win friends and influence people....
Though I must admit that telling the folks at Apple that they're arrogant and didn't do their homework probably won't win them as friends or influence them, either.
All of the reasons cited for why the schools couldn't make the iPad work are being blamed on the school. And quite so, you can see that if the schools had better administrators, a more forward thinking view of IT, better support etc. they might have been able to make the iPad work.
But hopefully Apple don't sit there and blame the school. If Apple wants to win the schools market, and if they believe iPad is a viable solution for use in schools, they should be out there solving the problem for the schools.
If a customer doesn't buy your product, it's something you, the vendor, needs to fix. Not the customer.
Health care industry is about 20 years behind in technology. Peter Cohen recently had an article where he had to actually make a photo copy of his iPhone screen showing his current medications.
Your statements don't support your claim very well.
I always love how Apple is blamed for stupid school systems.
...
All-in-all the problems mentioned in this story have much less to do with any shortcomings with the iPad than they do with the shortcomings of the school system personnel. Their lack of planning and research into a new technology is what caused these issues, not the iPads.
That doesn't change the importance of knowing your customer. If you want to sell 'em something, you gotta 'splain to 'em why to buy, using short words what they understand.
Weird comparison... if they wanted the "work horse", then they should have bought MacBooks and not iPads...
Agreed. It sounds like the schools didn't do due diligence to research whether the iPad met their needs (or didn't understand their needs well enough).
Educational pricing for the bottom tier MacBook Airs is more than the iPad cost, but if it meets your needs better it may be worth it.
No argument here. But telling people they're brain-dead is not an effective strategy to win friends and influence people....
Not if it’s not backed up with fact! But “You’re morons; here’s why...” can be an effective tool at embarrassment, which is one of the greatest teachers of all.
Again - what can you do on a chromebook besides surf the net, email, and google docs?
Sounds like Netbook 2.0
I am sure you will notice that Chromebook proponents conveniently "forget" the supposed importance of Adobe Creative Cloud, AutoDesk AutoCAD, Microsoft Office and so forth whilst never forgetting the necessity for the same apps on Apple iOS.
If iOS isn't a viable productivity solution then ChromeOS is lightyears from being productivity solution.
We've seen many schools all around the world adopting iPads, I believe some of the first actually were from Ireland and we've all read great success stories about how they really revolutionized learning.
Now that more schools are deploying them it is only natural that some come back and say it didn't really suit their needs, I guess. Especially if requirements were never really identified, as it seems in this case.
However, I would agree that for certain types of higher level education laptops might actually be more useful. And I would have believed this whole story if the school district in question would be switching to full fledged Macs or even Windows machines. But they're not. They're switching to machines that come with a physical keyboard but without any software whatsoever.
I would imagine that actually finding high quality educational content for Chromebooks will prove extremely hard. Especially highly interactive content with 3D animations, embedded playgrounds, etc. So it really seems the issue was 1) pure word processing and 2) school IT incapable of properly administering devices.
Either way, that's not my point. I would actually be extremely concerned if my child is forced by the school to create a Google account. That's what I can't get over when thinking about this whole thing. That's like forcing school children to sign up with Facebook. Google Docs all nice and fine, but how to they justify actually making your child create an account with a company that lives and provides these services thanks to the data they collect from you, the user. Were I a parent of one of those unfortunate children, I'd be going bonkers over this. Google is not a product company, they're not offering their products for sale, they're offering whatever they can in order to lure you into their services and get their hands on as much data about you as possible.
This is very different from signing up for iCloud, One Drive or MS Office subscriptions, which are companion services and where your user data is not used for profiling and advertising but for actually providing the service.
Luckily my daughter's school seems quite into these things. They actually require the parents to provide (explicitly) a MacBook Pro for their children starting from secondary, although I've seen some MacBook Airs being accepted as well as of recent. The good thing is they teach them various systems and applications for accomplishing the same tasks (MS Office, iWork, LibreOffice, etc), so I'm quite happy about that.
I am sure you will notice that Chromebook proponents conveniently "forget" the supposed importance of Adobe Creative Cloud, AutoDesk AutoCAD, Microsoft Office and so forth whilst never forgetting the necessity for the same apps on Apple iOS.
If iOS isn't a viable productivity solution then ChromeOS is lightyears from being productivity solution.
For classes that benefit from an Adobe design product then something other than a Chromebook would be the better choice. I don't think anyone believes there's any single product that's the best choice for each and every education need.
Everything depends upon how the technology will be used. What I'm absolutely certain of, however, is the almost zero teachers, administrators, school districts have a clue what role, if any, any tech device should have.
In the hands of school districts and administrators and teachers, there is no doubt in my mind that use of tech is and will remain a distraction and certainly not incorporated as a useful object to help students learn.
The software currently available, including book readers, such as Kindle and iBooks have no features which support how people (including students) actually best learn. That same is true for ChromeBooks.
Ouch. I can see the fun vs work mindset arise. And daily managing 1000 iPads probably being a life in misery. If it was just the keyboard, there are good clam shell covers for that. But I definitely see the need of a configurable system that can fit into the school system nicely.. Perhaps with the new IBM initiative this could become real?
"At the end of the year, I was upset that we didn't get the iPads," Hillsborough science teacher Larissa McCann told the publication. "But as soon as I got the Chromebook and the kids started using it, I saw, 'Okay, this is definitely much more useful.'"
Did no one else catch this? Maybe its just me - but that appears to say that a Chromebook that you actually have is definitely much more useful than an iPad which you do not have.
Does it not say "I was upset that we didn't get the iPads"?
Or is the implication here that she is suggesting that the Chromebooks are more useful that some imagined potential use of the iPad? or what she perceives the usefulness of iPads to be in other grades/departments where iPads have already been used?
Comments
This is absolute rubbish.
Apple not only provides their own software, Apple Configurator, but offers a significant number of APIs for third party software for mobile device management with significantly more features than Google Chromebook Management Console.
Rebuttal: Apple should be highlighting how brain-dead these people are. Show them why keyboards aren’t necessary, etc.
No argument here. But telling people they're brain-dead is not an effective strategy to win friends and influence people....
Though I must admit that telling the folks at Apple that they're arrogant and didn't do their homework probably won't win them as friends or influence them, either.
This is AppleInsider comments at it's best.
All of the reasons cited for why the schools couldn't make the iPad work are being blamed on the school. And quite so, you can see that if the schools had better administrators, a more forward thinking view of IT, better support etc. they might have been able to make the iPad work.
But hopefully Apple don't sit there and blame the school. If Apple wants to win the schools market, and if they believe iPad is a viable solution for use in schools, they should be out there solving the problem for the schools.
If a customer doesn't buy your product, it's something you, the vendor, needs to fix. Not the customer.
well that's kinda what I said.
Your statements don't support your claim very well.
I always love how Apple is blamed for stupid school systems.
...
All-in-all the problems mentioned in this story have much less to do with any shortcomings with the iPad than they do with the shortcomings of the school system personnel. Their lack of planning and research into a new technology is what caused these issues, not the iPads.
That doesn't change the importance of knowing your customer. If you want to sell 'em something, you gotta 'splain to 'em why to buy, using short words what they understand.
https://www.google.com/chrome/education/webstore/app-packs.html
http://www.cnet.com/news/living-with-chromebook-can-you-use-it-to-actually-get-work-done/
http://www.maximumpc.com/can_you_survive_chromebook_alone_2014
Weird comparison... if they wanted the "work horse", then they should have bought MacBooks and not iPads...
Agreed. It sounds like the schools didn't do due diligence to research whether the iPad met their needs (or didn't understand their needs well enough).
Educational pricing for the bottom tier MacBook Airs is more than the iPad cost, but if it meets your needs better it may be worth it.
Not if it’s not backed up with fact! But “You’re morons; here’s why...” can be an effective tool at embarrassment, which is one of the greatest teachers of all.
I am sure you will notice that Chromebook proponents conveniently "forget" the supposed importance of Adobe Creative Cloud, AutoDesk AutoCAD, Microsoft Office and so forth whilst never forgetting the necessity for the same apps on Apple iOS.
If iOS isn't a viable productivity solution then ChromeOS is lightyears from being productivity solution.
Are you in Elementary, Middle or High School?
Clairification: Because that's who those apps are for.
We've seen many schools all around the world adopting iPads, I believe some of the first actually were from Ireland and we've all read great success stories about how they really revolutionized learning.
Now that more schools are deploying them it is only natural that some come back and say it didn't really suit their needs, I guess. Especially if requirements were never really identified, as it seems in this case.
However, I would agree that for certain types of higher level education laptops might actually be more useful. And I would have believed this whole story if the school district in question would be switching to full fledged Macs or even Windows machines. But they're not. They're switching to machines that come with a physical keyboard but without any software whatsoever.
I would imagine that actually finding high quality educational content for Chromebooks will prove extremely hard. Especially highly interactive content with 3D animations, embedded playgrounds, etc. So it really seems the issue was 1) pure word processing and 2) school IT incapable of properly administering devices.
Either way, that's not my point. I would actually be extremely concerned if my child is forced by the school to create a Google account. That's what I can't get over when thinking about this whole thing. That's like forcing school children to sign up with Facebook. Google Docs all nice and fine, but how to they justify actually making your child create an account with a company that lives and provides these services thanks to the data they collect from you, the user. Were I a parent of one of those unfortunate children, I'd be going bonkers over this. Google is not a product company, they're not offering their products for sale, they're offering whatever they can in order to lure you into their services and get their hands on as much data about you as possible.
This is very different from signing up for iCloud, One Drive or MS Office subscriptions, which are companion services and where your user data is not used for profiling and advertising but for actually providing the service.
Luckily my daughter's school seems quite into these things. They actually require the parents to provide (explicitly) a MacBook Pro for their children starting from secondary, although I've seen some MacBook Airs being accepted as well as of recent. The good thing is they teach them various systems and applications for accomplishing the same tasks (MS Office, iWork, LibreOffice, etc), so I'm quite happy about that.
For classes that benefit from an Adobe design product then something other than a Chromebook would be the better choice. I don't think anyone believes there's any single product that's the best choice for each and every education need.
Weird comparison... if they wanted the "work horse", then they should have bought MacBooks and not iPads...
That $499 price tag is much more attractive.
In the hands of school districts and administrators and teachers, there is no doubt in my mind that use of tech is and will remain a distraction and certainly not incorporated as a useful object to help students learn.
The software currently available, including book readers, such as Kindle and iBooks have no features which support how people (including students) actually best learn. That same is true for ChromeBooks.
First rule they teach in anti-Apple trolling courses: trust Google, always. Everyone else is untrustworthy. It's even on the final exam.
Did no one else catch this? Maybe its just me - but that appears to say that a Chromebook that you actually have is definitely much more useful than an iPad which you do not have.
Does it not say "I was upset that we didn't get the iPads"?
Or is the implication here that she is suggesting that the Chromebooks are more useful that some imagined potential use of the iPad? or what she perceives the usefulness of iPads to be in other grades/departments where iPads have already been used?