Recently I was asked the following question:
“We are looking at doing some upgrading in our computer lab. We already have 20 iPads. Would you recommend getting 10 more and keypads or going with a bunch of Chrome books?”
The best answer I can give is, “It depends.”
It depends on the vision and mission of your school. It depends on the educational purpose of these devices. Whatever tool you are getting needs to align with what you want your school to accomplish.
Now let’s get down to specifics.
Reasons you want iPads: (Or possibly another tablet, but that’s a topic for another day.)
- For primary students they are incredibly easy to learn to use. Especially if they happen to already own one at home.
- The app store is second to none. There are apps galore suitable for education. (Even Apple’s competitor app stores have tons of options for their tablets.)
- They turn on quickly, have great battery life and are easily portable.
Reasons you don’t want iPads:
- They don’t have built in keyboards. If you are doing any sort of actual data entry you need a keyboard. Buying attached keyboards helps, but they have problems.
- Do not buy bluetooth keyboards. In a room with multiple devices sending radio signals the bluetooth keyboards can lose their connections.
- The keyboards that attach and detach can be broken and/or lost.
- Price. iPads aren’t cheap and if you have to buy an attached keyboard that makes it even more expensive.
- iPads were not designed to have multiple users using them. If you are using them in a mobile lab setup that has the devices traveling from student to student you will run into problems.
- IT management is a problem. Setting up one iPad at home for your family isn’t a big deal. Setting up and maintaining 30 iPads is. Good management software for your IT support makes this job much smaller, Apple has improved its tools since the initial release, but it still isn’t as easy as it should be. And because it isn’t easy it costs you more time which equals more money.
Reasons you want Chromebooks:
- Fantastic integration with GAFE. If you are a GAFE school this is the way to go. If you aren’t a GAFE school why are you even looking at Chromebooks? (Explaining why GAFE is the tool you should use is a completely different topic.)
- Price. Right now they are the best deal going for schools. (We’ll see if that stays true, there are a few others who are waking up to the threat Google is in the education market. Microsoft, I’m looking at you here.)
- Great battery life.
- Chromebooks are designed for multiple users and easily handle switching between students.
- Fantastic management system for your IT support. It works well and easily saves you lots of time and money.
Reasons you don’t want Chromebooks:
- While there are many apps available it is a little more confusing how to access them. (Google Play for Education, Chrome Webstore, extensions, add-ons, etc…)
- If you aren’t using GAFE you don't want Chromebooks.
- Touchscreens make the most sense for the primary grades. There are touchscreen Chromebooks available, but they do cost more.
