Tablets·272 discussions

Chromebook or Android Tablet for education?

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I’m a teacher, and I need help. There’s not enough hardware for my students to utilize all the learning tools to which I’d like them to have access. I’ve looked at the pros and cons of these two options, and want to know what some non-education techies think. Chromebook bothers me because I don’t think that netbooks are the direction the world’s going, plus it’s new and will probably be going through some growing pains. It’s certainly much more affordable than the more reliable Android tablets, and would be easier to maintain, I think, for our IT department.
I want students to be able to listen to audio books, read books, do presentations using web-based applications like prezi, access and utilize word docs stored on my website, collaborate online, and write and store docs either through google or dropbox. Thoughts?

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In reply to Chromebook or Android Tablet for education?

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Well my opinion for what little it’s worth

In reply to Chromebook or Android Tablet for education?

Is I would go for the Droid. The Chrome Book is effectively nothing more than a Web Browser and without a Net Connection it’s useless.

Not that the Droid is much better but at least it can do a bit more without the net. 😉

Col

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In reply to Well my opinion for what little it’s worth

What’s your beef with the Android tablet? What potential problems do you see? We have a microsoft education bundle, so using an ipad is hard to legitimize… I have looked at the Samsung Galaxy or the Motorola XOOM. Thanks so much for your response!

No real issue with the Droid

In reply to Chromebook or Android Tablet for education?

But like the iPad it’s not a Windows Based system which may be a problem for your current needs.

The Chrome Books are effectively a Browser and nothing more without a Net connection.

The Droids have a full OS and can do a lot more but again they are not a Windows Platform and Software that works on Windows isn’t likely to work on one of those. You will most likely find that you need to have software specially written for them. Or use something freely available that is different.

Col

Reponse To Answer

In reply to No real issue with the Droid

Okay. so… We’ll have Office 2010 next school year… Let’s say I convert all word docs to PDF… Couldn’t I then allow students to open up docs on my site– and convert them to Google docs? I didn’t mean they’d need to create docs in word. I’m not fond of Microsoft, but work for a school that just contracted for a full Microsoft education bundle. We’ve got the software, but I am sorely lacking in the hardware department. Thanks for responding. Any insight you can provide is very helpful…

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In reply to No real issue with the Droid

Yes that should work.

You could also use something like Dropbox

http://www.dropbox.com/

To share the date it should work and make things easier for you.

It???s just right at the moment Droid Devices are limited by the available Apps and you may experience some issues there. However I think you???ll find the Chrome Books affected the same way.

Col

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In reply to Chromebook or Android Tablet for education?

I have implemented Droid and iPad into a Windows based school. I have found the iPad more accommodating with implementation in talking to the server and transferring files. The Droid tablets required Opera Mini to talk through the proxy server and would not through the installed web browser. This has been an issue with Android tablets for some time. The Android will not talk to your server to be able to transfer files easily and email will not work (which is the same with iPads through our proxy).

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