Anyone here use Chromebooks?

[Wyndru]

Anyone here belong to an organization using chromebooks? If so, how has your experience with a subscription based piece of hardware been?

Our school is looking to move toward chromebook (anything google is gold to our district admins for some reason). As a tech I have a few concerns because I don't know what they allow to be installed on these machines, and we have a lot of software and configuration that needs to be incorporated in the image.

Here is the link my supervisor sent to me to look at.

http://lp.google-mkto.com/chromebookclassroom_edutopia.html

Payment Options:
1 year purchase - $449 ($519 with 3G)
Chromebook hardware & Chrome OS updates
1 year management console
1 year service/support from Google
1 year warranty from Google with advance replacement
*$5/month for management console, service, and support from Google after first year
3 year subscription - $20/month ($23/month with 3G)
Chromebook hardware & Chrome OS updates
3 years management console
3 years service/support from Google
3 year extended warranty from Google with advance replacement
Note: Schools own Chromebooks after the first payment and receive a new set upon renewal or new purchase.

Based on the above, it looks like google does all the support (which is obviously bad for us techs) so I'm a little hesitant recommending this kind of thing. Especially since we recently dumped all office tools and email and file servers for a google apps domain. Once google does all of our support we won't be needed anymore .

But enough of my whining, if anyone has any experience with chromebooks (good or bad), please share. I'd like to get some real life feedback.

Thanks.

 

[alent1234]

i have the cr-48 beta model, i hate it and so does my wife

the whole thing is basically just the chrome browser and only web apps into chrome can be "installed". there is a reason why a lot of schools are buying ipads. they are a lot more useful for education

don't know about the real ones, but mine is a paperweight without network access

 

[Wyndru]

i have the cr-48 beta model, i hate it and so does my wife

the whole thing is basically just the chrome browser and only web apps into chrome can be "installed". there is a reason why a lot of schools are buying ipads. they are a lot more useful for education

don't know about the real ones, but mine is a paperweight without network access

Thanks for the feedback.

From what I've been reading that is a big complaint with these things. Basically it's just chrome OS, so you are limited to using cloud apps. Our teachers would not like these in replacement of their PC's. We are also getting iPads for all of the students, so I don't know why they want these as well

 

[alent1234]

there are literally thousands of educational apps in the app store. everything from age 1 to graduate level studies. i get a daily email of free iOS apps and a month ago there were a bunch of high level math apps free. stuff like trigonometry, calculus, etc. i've downloaded math graphing apps just because they were free and hopefully i can use them a few years down the road when my older son is, older. a lot of these are hundreds of MB in size, can be used offline and the form factor of the ipad means kids don't have to be chained to a desk when using these applications

 

[wahdangun]

Thanks for the feedback.

From what I've been reading that is a big complaint with these things. Basically it's just chrome OS, so you are limited to using cloud apps. Our teachers would not like these in replacement of their PC's. We are also getting iPads for all of the students, so I don't know why they want these as well

what an ipad ????
i think they better of buying AMD brazos netbook, its more capable, useful and CHEAPER