Since I got an Android phone last December, using Windows 7 on my PC has felt more and more cumbersome. iPads and Android tablets are exciting, but I have difficulty getting past one thing: the lack of a keyboard.
As an English teacher, I try to steer my students away from text-speak and toward writing in complete sentences. Pecking at a tablet’s touch screen keyboard can be frustrating and makes using these devices for writing unnecessarily burdensome.
Google’s new Chromebook seems to offer many of a tablet’s advantages in the form of a netbook. According to reviews, the devices turn on instantly, have long battery life, and run Chrome OS, a browser/operating system that operates in the cloud. Chrome OS isn’t Android, and I don’t think could live with its limitations on my personal machine. However, this device is tailor-made for the classroom.
Chrome OS is designed to get users to the web as quickly as possible, and all applications are stored externally in the cloud. Students can turn on their devices, log into Google, and immediately have access it its host of applications and the web. Working in this Web 2.0 landscape encourages collaboration and creativity, and with all of the technical hiccups we experience using technology, Chromebooks offer a promising alternative.
You should use this for your presentation and/or for the team wiki paper for EDL 755.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen the educational pricing for them? Much of the feedback on those who were luckly enough to gear one for the pilot were impressed too.
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