Bring your tech to school has been the norm here in the Williamson County, TN school district for several years now. As parents we want our kids to be prepared and have what they need to succeed. But what does that mean when it comes to tech? Most kids have smartphones already but they are to small to do any real work on and in some classes they are not allowed due to the distractions. A laptop is an option but they can be heavy, and suffer short battery life. Others choose the Mac air laptops which are very nice ultra light long battery life devices but they come at a cost and are very fragile. Tablets have proven to be limited, break easy and are costly to own.
So I tell parents to look into a Google Chrome Book. What the heck is a Chrome Book. A Chrome Book usually finds itself in the form of a 14″ laptop with a real keyboard and thumb-pad and has 1 or more USB ports and even an HDMI port. That means they can use a mouse too. They are WIFI ready and can be hardwired to a network. The difference is they run a less expensive operating system created by Google called you guessed it “Chrome” All of the major manufactures sell them so they are easy to get.
The best part is the price. A nice Chrome Book can be purchased for well under $200 and is made to be fixed. Screens and keyboards can be replaced at a low cost. They have great battery life and let’s face it, if your kid destroys it, it was only $200 not $1200 like some other devices.
Click to Look at Chrome BooksThe next best part of a Chrome Book is it’s OS is made by Google to work with Google and Williamson County School District uses Google technology. Each child has a gmail account, teachers us Google Classroom, they even have cloud storage so whey can access their work from any device.
How do I know this? Well it’s simple, I had a child graduate from Centennial High School during the implementation of “bring your tech to school.” We first tried a tablet but in the end found the Chrome Book was the best solution. She even uses one today at UT Knoxville. She tells me it’s lighter, lasts all day and works well in her classes. At night she switches to a regular PC, and works on her cloud stored documents. I also have a private school client that’s 100% Chrome Book with over 70 in use everyday.
So don’t spend a ton of money on tech for school. Get them a Chrome Book. They will use it and you won’t break the bank.
