Chromebooks in Education: An all-in-one educational tool for students & teachers

Chromebooks are creating somewhat of a stir in the education sector, and not just when it comes to IT solutions. With fully integrated and extendable educational tools, with a range of services reigning from Google Workspace, Chrome Store and the android application market, Chromebooks are forming the new frontier for technology deployed in education.

We spoke with Harry Elliott, IT Support Manager at Queen Elizabeth's School, about his experiences since deploying Chromebooks in the learning environment, and whether he feels Chromebooks really are good for education.

 

Designed for teaching and learning

By default, and regardless of manufacturer, Chromebooks all come designed for education first-and-foremost. Both affordable and scalable, with models ranging from as little as £179 or as much as £999, whatever a school's budget, the base hardware and specs are always of a minimum required standard, as defined by Google.

In practice, this means fast, easy-to-use, lightweight systems. Taking full advantage of cloud storage for substantially shorter loading times and system programmes stored in eMMC flash memory, Chromebooks are fast and responsive both on the go and to start-up, taking a prompt 8 seconds to boot. Lack of traditional HDDs also means more room for power, which translates to a machine capable of keeping up with the learning timetable. An 8-hour average to be precise, so there's plenty of leeway for those extra-curricular classes too.

They're also built to be robust, intuitive and fully integrated with access to Google educational tools right off the shelf (all under the umbrella of Google Workspace) and at no additional cost. Coupled with the vast range of applications available via the Chrome Store and android application market, this makes Chromebooks far more compatible than other industry alternatives, with the option to easily integrate other non-Google apps that schools may already be using successfully in their existing set-ups, such as Moodle, Milk and various other VLE applications and educational tools.

Not only are Chromebooks enhancing learning for students, but they're also empowering teachers too. Using apps like Classroom allows educators to provide instantaneous feedback, track student progress, set tasks and assignments with due dates, manage curriculum and grading, as well as upload useful resources, and all in one place. Plus, with the ability to work online or offline at any time and on any device, Chromebooks offer teachers the tools to encourage collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking amongst their students.

For students of all ages and abilities

With built-in accessibility features like ChromeVox, a screen reader, options for a touchscreen, plus support for many devices and peripherals such as braille keyboards, styluses and more, Chromebooks are offering both teachers and students at all levels a more intuitive and accessible learning experience. One that, in previous years, would have been almost unimaginable.

An intuitive IT solution for schools

Chromebooks have proven to be easy to implement, easy to use, and easy to manage, with IT administrators able to set up new devices in a matter of minutes, and all the controls they're used to.

They can allow and restrict specific services, sites and applications, manage programmes and software across all devices by simply enabling them with the touch of a button, and create groups with different policies and restrictions. No individually configuring each and every device for each and every student - they can simply list a login under the group, and all the settings are applied on sign-in. And, with automated, cloud-based management, processes are more streamlined, giving IT staff the valuable time they need to stay on top of more pressing tickets, with the knowledge and confidence that all of their users are up to date. Device updates are run automatically and in the background, approximately every 7 weeks, and can even be randomly 'scattered' to help with those larger institutions that need to be mindful of bandwidth usage.

What's more, with Individual Google profiles, students don't need to be assigned a dedicated Chromebook - with their profile comes all of their personal settings, accessibility set-up, and extensions, so they can start learning on any Chromebook they log into, whether they're in the classroom, the library, an IT suite, or at home.

Safe, secure and ad-free

Possibly the most important feature across every available Chromebook, Google's 'Best-in-class' security is keeping students safe online and in the classroom, with specific features such as Sandboxing: a sort of virtual safety net that keeps each and every web page or application in a restricted environment, known as a 'sandbox.' 

In the event that a Chromebook is directed to an unsafe page, everything else is protected - other tabs, apps or anything on the machine for that matter. Equally, 'persistent enrolment' monitors devices and checks that they are always enrolled to the institution's domain, and should a Chromebook ever become lost or stolen, the device is also protected from data theft - it can be remotely disabled at any time, and the 'ephemeral mode' will wipe user data upon logout. Plus, every time a Chromebook is switched on, it performs a 'verified boot,' meaning that even if malware somehow made it out of the sandbox, it would be eradicated there and then.

With all of the free services and support on offer with Chromebooks, it would be easy to assume that advertising would come as part of the experience, as is typical for other Google products and services. But Google has stated that "Google Workspace core services do not contain advertising, nor do they use information in those services for advertising purposes. Plus, all Google Workspace for Education core services support COPPA and FERPA compliance."

The Verdict?

Thanks again to Harry for his time and contributions!